Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel
by DnG The Blind Guy
Summary: Magic has determined that the wizarding world needs a Vigilante, what's in store for Harry? Rated M to be on the safe side.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer

All characters within this story are the creation of JKR and I do not, in no way, shape or form, resemble JKR. For starters, I am the wrong gender, I live on the other side of the pond and I proudly live north of the border...I am a Canadian! On top of that, I make no money, nor receive any money for the fun I am having in her sand box. And, oh yeah, if anything herein resembles other stuff out there in fandom, it means that I liked your story and I am just putting my own spin on it, just like we all put our own spin on JKR's creation. So, please, please do not flame if it sounds like yours. With over half a million Harry Potter fan fics out there, its bound to have been done somewhat similar before. That being stated, enjoy my little take on the HP universe.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter One

June 24, 1995

Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch

Nearing Dusk

"Good luck Harry", said Hermione Granger as she leaned in and wrapped him up in one of her famous hugs. As she pulled away, she quickly placed a chaste kiss on the corner of his mouth, her cheeks blushing slightly from the action. "I'll be waiting by the judge's table for you at the end of this task, OK?"

"Sure", said a flabbergasted Harry Potter, a weird feeling setting into the pit of his stomach after Hermione's show of affection.

"Yea, good luck mate", said Ron Weasley as he stepped forward and patted Harry's shoulder a couple of times, "I'll be waiting with Hermione when the task is over".

"OK, thanks guys".

As the three friends parted ways, Ron and Hermione heading to the stands and Harry heading towards the judges table, Harry's thoughts were on a certain bushy haired girl. Her most recent action had him deep in thought. "I wonder what Hermione is playing at. Does she have feelings for me like I have had for her ever since that hug just before I confronted professor Quirrell? If I make it out of here alive, I'm going to tell her what my true feelings are towards her", he thought to himself. Harry was brought out of his musings when the amplified voice of Ludo Bagmen could be heard over the din of the crowd.

"Witches and Wizards, welcome to the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament. I am your host once again and would like to inform you of the task set forth before our four champions. In front of you is a maze that the champions must traverse to the center where the Triwizard Cup is waiting. The first contestant to reach the cup will be the winner and will be returned to this very podium signifying the end of the task and reveal to us all who the winner of the Triwizard Tournament will be. Wish all of our contestants good luck as the maze is also wrought with many different challenges from magical beasts to traps and illusions. This final task will surely test all of the champions to their limits and may the best one win".

The roar of the crowd was deafening as Ludo worked them up into a frenzy.

"May I introduce you to our contestants then. In first place with eighty-five points each, Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Harry Potter. In second place with eighty points, Viktor Krum and in last place with seventy-eight points, is Fleur Delacour. What this means is that Mr. Diggory and Mr. Potter will enter the maze at the same time, Viktor Krum will enter five minutes later and Miss Delacour will enter two minutes after that. Now, contestants, to the start line".

Harry and Cedric made their way to the entrance to the maze and shook hands while exchanging good lucks to each other. At the sound of the cannon blast, both Hogwarts champions sped off into the maze, Cedric going left at the first intersection and Harry going to the right. The path that Harry found himself on led on forever it seemed until he came across a break in the hedge. There was an opening to the left and he stopped. Placing his wand on his hand like Hermione had taught him, Harry said, "Point me". Immediately his wand started spinning and when it stopped, it was pointing to the left somewhat. Running through the gap, Harry turned right once more and continued to the end of the path where it turned left and headed deeper into the maze.

Oddly enough, he hadn't come across any traps or pitfalls yet and he was thankful. He heard a second cannon blast behind him somewhere and knew that Viktor Krum was now in the maze as well. Concentrating hard once more, Harry continued to jog further into the maze. As he neared the end of the corridor that he was in, he heard the third cannon blast and knew that all of the champions were now inside the maze and making their own ways towards the Triwizard Cup.

Using the point me spell once more, Harry took the next left and then coming around the next corner, he almost ran into one of Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts. Slipping on the grass and losing his balance, Harry slid underneath the Skrewt, just as a ball of fire from the blast end passed through where his head was moments before. As he passed underneath the creature, Harry remembered the lesson on the Blast-Ended Skrewts and that their underbellies were the only point of their bodies not covered by the thick armour-like shell. Pointing his wand up, he yelled, "Stupify", and the red bolt of magic jumped from his wand and hit the creature with enough force to flip it end over end, causing it to land on its back a few feet away, its legs not moving.

Picking himself up off of the ground, Harry dusted his robe off and sprinted towards the next corner. He was running so fast, trying to get away from the Blast-Ended Skrewt, that he failed to notice a Griffin as it pranced out of an alcove off to his right and straight into his path. Unable to stop himself, he ran headlong into the side of the majestic creature and promptly fell onto his back, slightly dazed. Before he could react, the Griffin lifted one of its forepaws and brought it down on his shoulder, the razor-like talons tearing through his robe and clothing before embedding them into his flesh. Harry stared up at the creature as the pain assaulted his senses and then the Griffin turned its golden coloured eyes upon him and Harry thought he seen a twinkling in their depths, an action that was reminiscent of his headmaster, before he blacked out.

When he came to, he was in the hospital wing in his own personalized bed. He had spent so much time in this particular bed over the past four years while he was at Hogwarts, that Madame Pomfrey had a sign specially made for him that said Harry Potter's Bed. Then she had had it mounted above his bed in the hospital wing.

He groaned slightly as he moved each part of his body, trying to make sure everything still worked. This particular routine had become a normal function when he found himself awakening in the hospital wing so many times. Once that he had determined that all of his body parts still worked, he reflected on how he had gotten here in the first place. The last thing that he remembered was crashing headfirst into a creature that, if Hermione had anything to say about it, only existed in legend. A gryffin had appeared in front of him, and had pierced his shoulder with its beak? And then he had blacked out.

Then other thoughts started bombarding his brain, thoughts like: Who won the Triwizard tournament?; Did Fleur, Cedric or Viktor make it through alright?; where were Ron and Hermione? He was brought out of his musings by a clearing of a throat. When he looked up, he saw that Albus Dumbledore was standing at the end of his bed, looking down at him, his blue eyes twinkling wildly. Instantly Harry felt a slight pressure in his head and an animalistic urge charged forward expelling the pressure. He watched as the headmaster winced when this happened and then a deep, commanding voice spoke to Harry,

"That fool thinks that he can just go around and use legilimancy on anyone he wants too, well he won't be reading your mind anymore Harry."

Before Harry could form any questions to the new, unknown voice, it continued, "I am projecting my voice in to your mind through a mental ability that I will teach you once we meet, where I will be able to train you more, but until then, you need to adjust to your new body and its abilities."

"What do you mean, my new body and abilities?" thought Harry.

"Well, it seems that my familiar's bite combined with some other rather unique characteristics within your blood has transformed your body somewhat, but for now, just relax and let me protect your mind from your headmaster. He really doesn't have the best intentions towards you."

"He's as guilty for killing your parents as this Lord Voldemort is, but I will explain more once we meet. For now, just play along with whatever he says and I will continue to protect your mind from anymore mental assaults."

"OK" thought Harry, finding the entire situation very wierd and then feigning curiosity, asked the headmaster "Are you alright, sir?"

""I am fine Harry, my boy, just a little bit of a headache from all of the goings on from the past two days."

'Have I been here for two days?" asked an alarmed Harry and added, "What happened?"

"Well, its a long story, but to shorten things up considerably, you were attacked by some unknown force within the maze and left for dead. You were very unconcious when we found you. Can you tell us what happened?" asked Albus with his grandfatherly persona in full force.

The voice spoke up once more, "Tell him nothing. He doesn't know what happened and for your own safety, he doesn't need to know either."

"OK", said Harry to the mental voice and turning his focus towards the headmaster, said "I. I remember running away from the Blast-ended Skrewt. I must have run into something hard while I was looking over my shoulder while trying to get away from its firey backside. The next thing I knew, I was waking up here a couple of minutes ago. Does that help sir?"

"Alas, I wish that there was more that you could tell me, but it appears that there is no more information to be passed on."

"Can you tell me who won the Triwizard Cup?"

"Well, our own Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory made it to the cup first, but I really think that you were meant to be the winner."

"Why do you say that sir?" asked Harry.

"Because the cup was a portkey and poor Mr. Diggory was whisked away to some place where Lord Voldemort used some dark, obscure ritual to bring himself back to a corporeal form."

Harry paled at the thought, but had to ask, "What happened to Cedric?"

"Alas, poor Mr. Diggory did not survive the encounter and his body was sent back to the Quidditch pitch via the same portkey with a note attached to the desecrated body announcing Lord Voldemort's return."

"That, that, that's terrible." stammered Harry. "How could he do that to Cedric, he was only an innocent student, like myself."

"Well Mr. Potter, that is why I think that you were to reach the cup first, after all, Lord Voldemort has been after you ever since you made your return to the wizarding world and started attending Hogwarts. I also believe that this was the reason why your name was placed into the Goblet of Fire in the first place, and it is for that very reason that I must insist on you returning to your relatives yet again this summer. It is the safest place on the earth and the protection that your mother provided you with her death is only available at your home."

"Don't worry", the voice spoke up once more, "You won't have to stay there long, there are plans in the making that should see your escape from there not long after your arrival."

"Yes headmaster, I understand. Can Ron and Hermione come and see me soon?"

"Yes Harry, they can and since I have other things to tend to, I will be off and let you visit with your friends."

And with a wave of his wand towards the hospital doors, they opened up allowing Ron and Hermione to come running in to Harry's side. Hermione swept him up in one of her rib crushing hugs and then the questions started.

"Are you alright? What happened in the maze? Did you here about Cedric? Do you have to go back to the Dursley's this summer? I gave the headmaster a blast you know, knowing how your family treats you and all. How long do you have to stay in here? Will you be able to join us for the Leaving Feast?"

"Slow down Hermione and I'll try to answer all of your questions. Yes, I was hit by a stunner, I think, yes, yes,

I'm not sure and yes, if I can get out of here in time."

Hermione looked stunned for a moment, but her mind quickly caught up with what Harry had just said and she quickly leaned in and gave him another hug.

"It was so terrible, poor Cedric's body, what they did to him" she said while she started sobbing silently into Harry's shoulder, "And then they had a hard time finding you afterwards."

"What do you mean they had a hard time finding me?"

"Well, professor Dumbledore cast a spell over the entire maze after Cedric's body appeared and they found Viktor attacking poor Fleur and later found out that he was under the effects of the imperious curse, and and", but Hermione started sobbing more violently into Harry's shoulder.

When Hermione couldn't talk any further, he turned towards Ron, only to see the tips of Ron's ears were very red, a definite sign that Ron was angry and barely able to contain his fury. Not understanding why Ron seemed to be so angry, Harry asked "What happened Ron, why is Hermione crying into my shoulder like this?"

"Well mate, you weren't in the maze when professor Dumbledore lowered the hedges, we only found you after Hermione checked the Marauder's Map and found you in professor Moodie's office."

Hermione started sobbing even more now and clutched at Harry, "B B B Bart Crouch JR. was ther too and he wa trying to p p poison y y you. W W W W didn't th th think th th that y y yo wer goin t live." sobbed Hermione into Harry's fastly becoming tear soaked hospital pajamas.

So that was why I was in here for so long, Harry thought to himself, and professor Dumbledore couldn't even let me know what happened to me. I'm really starting to not like him, telling me that I have to go back to my relatives, its the safest place you know, what with my mother's sacrifice and all. It doesn't make any sense now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure that there are many mothers out there who have given there lives to save their children and yet I have never heard of this protection ever before. And the headmaster didn't even believe me when I told them how the Dursley's treated me. Does he not realize that my so-called family hates me, that to them I am just a freak and a nobody and that I don't deserve to live. And come to think of it, nobody in the wizarding world has ever really believed anything I have said either, besides Hermione, he mused as he absent-mindedly wrapped his arms around his best friend and returned her hug, giving her the much needed compassion that her sobbing form seemed to need. Not even Ron could be depended on.

My so-called best mate always seems to turn his back on me when I need his support the most. And come to think of it, that wanker was also responsible for putting Hermione in the bathroom that first year. And as I think about it even more, why did the Weasleys meet me on the outside of the barrier at King's Cross, none of the other magical families met there, they all apparated in, or flued into the train station. And why was Mrs. Weasley carrying on like she didn't know where the platform was, she already had five children going to Hogwarts. The thoughts started overwhelming Harry as, for the first time in a long, long time, the magical blocks and barriers that the headmaster had placed on him at Godrics Hollow started to fail, and as the charms started to fail, Potter family traits and the Evans family intellect started to manifest themselves within Harry. Harry suddenly realized that his life was about to change and that he was no longer going to blindly follow the great leader of the light, Albus Dumbledore, and that the ministry of magic couldn't be trusted either, after all, the ministry mouthpiece, the Daily Prophet had just spent the entire year ridiculing Harry and even Hermione.

With his resolve reset, a new confidence settled over Harry. No longer was he going to sit back and let the Death Eaters come for him, he was going to study and train and take the fight to them. He would try and work Hermione into his plans, she was the smartest person in the world you know, but he would have to think about Ron, he didn't want Ron abandoning them again, especially if their lives depended on it. And he was going to avenge his older friend Cedric's death.

As his thoughts slowed somewhat, Harry shifted his focus back to the girl in his arms. The sobbing had stopped, but when he looked over at Ron, he could still see the anger hadn't abated, so he reached out his hand towards his best mate, or maybe not, and said, "Are you OK mate?"

Ron stepped forward reaching for Harry's hand and said, "Just great, I can't wait to get home where I can fly on my broom all summer."

As soon as their hands touched, feelings of betrayal, deceit, hatred and jealousy flooded Harry's senses. Harry finished the handshake as quickly as possible, the brief encounter leaving him feeling rather nauseous. He hugged Hermione a little tighter for a brief second and then feigning tiredness,, got the two of them to head back to Gryffindor tower. It was getting close to curfew and he didn't want to see Hermione get into any sort of trouble if she was caught out. As for Ron, he would have to think long and hard about his friend and what the feelings that had just assaulted his senses meant.

Before Hermione pulled away to return to Gryffindor tower, she leant in and lightly kissed his cheek as she whispered into his ear, "Madame Ponfrey says that you will be released tomorrow, in time for the leaving feast, so I'll see you tomorrow then. And with one final quick squeeze, she released her hold on Harry and headed for the hospital door, Ron at her side. For some reason, Harry found himself staring at her cute bum as she swayed her hips slightly, and then with a final glance over her shoulder at him and a shy smile, she was gone. Not once did he realize that he wasn't wearing his glasses.

HP HG HP HG

A/N: Please read and review.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: Thanks for the overwhelming response overnight, my inbox filled up so quickly this morning that it took nearly half an hour to go through them all. Thanks so much.

I can't promise an update a day or anything like that, but for now, I can foresee the story through the end of the summer and maybe beyond, we'll see.

Thanks for the reviews as well, read on and most of the questions posed will be answered within the next two chapters.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Two

Five days later found Harry waking up in the smallest room at Number 4 Privett Drive. His head was throbbing and he tried to remember why. He remembered waking up in the hospital wing, the way Hermione had clung to him, her soft kiss on the cheek before she left, her shy smile as she disappeared out of the hospital wing and then he remembered the hatred that was oozing off of his so-called best friend. He finally realized that the betrayal, deceit, hatred and jealousy that he felt during that handshake was directly aimed at him. He still couldn't understand why though.

And then there was the leaving feast. Cedric was awarded the Triwizard Cup and the 1000 galleon prize posthumously by Ludo Bagman and the Minister of Magic, his grief stricken father accepting the money and cup. The minister then went on to say that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, DMLE for short, was doing everything that it could to bring Cedric's murderer to justice for this hanous crime. There was no mention of Lord Voldemort's return, whatsoever.

And then there was the brief kiss that Hermione had given him before they passed through the muggle barrier at Kings Cross. She had given him one of her patented rib-crushing hugs as they said good-bye and then before pulling away had kissed him on the corner of his mouth, saying that she would stay in contact with him over the summer and maybe even get her parents to bring her over to visit. Over her shoulder, he had seen Ron standing with his family, the hateful glare aimed at him almost making Harry gasp. He couldn't understand Ron's sudden hatred of him.

And then there was the car ride home. Uncle Vernon's beady little eyes kept glancing at him through the rear view mirror, the pulsing vein on his forehead becoming quicker as they grew closer to Surrey and their home on Privett Drive. The colour of Uncle Vernon's face steadily darkened as well, going from a somewhat healthy pink, to a blotchy pink that just got darker until it finally completed its journey into magenta. By this time, Harry thought that his uncle's blood vessel was going to burst on the spot, but thank Merlin that it didn't.

It was at that point that Harry was glad that he had told Hedwig to fly home from Hogwarts and take her time, because the feelings of outright hatred that were flowing off of his uncle were starting to make Harry feel very nauseous. A sense of foreboding overcame him at that point and he knew that it was going to be a long, long summer, if he survived.

When they finally made it to Number 4 Privett Drive, all three Dursleys hurried into the house, leaving Harry to haul his trunk into the house and as he hauled his trunk the last few feet into the hallway, two things happened simultaneously; he heard the front door slam shut and he felt a sharp pain invade his senses from the back of his head and then he knew no more.

When he finally opened his eyes, the world zoomed into focus. It must be early morning, Harry thought, because the sky was becoming lighter outside his window and he could see a couple of morning doves sitting on the roofline of Number 5 across the street. The sun wasn't up yet and as he reached for his glasses, he remembered that he didn't need them anymore. Maybe it was the after effects of the poison, he wasn't sure, but he knew that he no longer needed them.

As he looked around his room he noticed that, as usual, it had been reverted to the junk/storage room for Dudley's broken and unused toys, the new computer that he had gotten for his birthday last year, sitting in the corner with the monitor smashed out. He assumed that his trunk was stowed away in the cupboard under the stairs once more as it was nowhere to be found. And finally, he looked down at his bed. The threadbare blanket that usually adorned his bed was soaked red with blood, probably his blood from the throbbing that he still felt from the back of his head. Upon further inspection, he also found two white feathers with golden tips on his pillow.

His clothes were blood-stained as well, but closer inspection showed that there were no apparent cuts or abrasions adorning his body, that he could see. So he decided to move as the call of nature was becoming demanding and as he stood up, the jogging pants that he was wearing rode up on his legs to just below his knees. When he reached down to unbunch them, he quickly realized that they were not bunched, but rather a bit on the short side. He then noticed that the T-shirt that he was wearing now fit him like a normal T-shirt would, instead of looking like a full length sweater.

He started to panic a little bit, not understanding what was going on and hurried over to the door, heading for the bathroom. He found that the door was locked, as was usual, and wished that door was unlocked as he really, really had to releave himself. There was a slight tingling feeling in his finger tips and the next thing Harry knew was that the locks all started clicking and then his door swung open. Hurrying to the bathroom, he didn't notice when the tips of his unruly hair brushed the top of the door frame as he rushed from his room.

Once he had relieved himself, he didn't remember that being so big either, the reality of things hit him full force when he bent down to wash his hands in the basin. He never bent down to wash his hands and when he looked up at the mirror, his emreald green eyes were staring back at him, flecks of gold contained within. It was then that the strange voice spoke to him once more, the same voice that had told him to be wary of the headmaster.

"I told you that your body had gone through a small transformation, but it looks like the poison that was forced into your system had some beneficial side effects as well."

"What do you mean, beneficial side effects?" demanded Harry.

"Well, it seems that the magical bonds that the headmaster placed on you when you were but only a day removed from your parents, binding your magical core, were weakened enough that the other magical essences in your blood were able to destroy the bonds that the headmaster had placed on you and as your magical core grew to its normal size for the first time in your life, the power you now wield also nullified all of the other charms that the headmaster had placed on you as well."

"What other charms are you talking about?"

"Did you ever question the headmaster before? or have you ever wondered why you just accepted the Weasleys as though they were long lost family?"

"No, why."

"Its simple, the headmaster cast some very powerful charms upon you when you were a baby, making you completely loyal to him and to never question his authority. And he also cast a strong compulsion charm upon you to become very close to the Weasley family when you first met them, like they were the long, lost family that you never knew."

"And the reason I am now questioning everything I knew, is because the charms are weakening?"

"Most definitely, and rest assured that the charms are now completely useless. Your magical power is now at least ten times more powerful then the castor of those charms."

"Are you telling me that I am more powerful than the headmaster?"

"Oh yes indeed, you were even more powerful then the headmaster was when he cast the magic to bind your magical core when you were a baby, you just weren't able to defend yourself at that point in time. The headmaster is most definitely an enemy to you and the Potter family as a whole, you see, he was responsible for setting Lord Voldemort after you and your parents. He created a false prophecy and had part of it revealed to a Death Eater who quickly relayed the information to his dark lord and it was shortly after that, that the dark lord came calling. Your mother was able to cast a protective charm on you that caused Lord Voldemort's killing curse that he cast at you to rebound on him. It did leave that scar on your forehead as a reminder that night, however as a result, Albus Dumbledore has totally manipulated you from that point forward to be his willing little pawn that he fully intended to slaughter a week ago at Lord Voldemort's resurrection."

"You mean he lied to me in the hospital wing. He was trying to make me believe that I may have been the intended target instead of telling me that I was the intended target. Well, no more. I refuse to let that manipulative old bastard to try and control me anymore and my so-called best mate can totally piss off. I am starting to believe that he is angry with me because I survived past the Triwizard tournament and that he probably expected to inherit my Firebolt or something like that."

"Something like that." the voice said.

"What!" yelled Harry.

"Actually", the voice continued, "your best mate stood to inherit a portion of the Potter family fortune for befriending you back in your first year and for steadily keeping you from performing to your best ability. And, oh yeah, reporting your each and every move to the headmaster."

"You've got to be kidding me, but now that I think about it, it kind of makes sense. Ron was the sixth Weasley to go to Hogwarts, plus Mr. and Mrs. Weasley both went there, so its not like they didn't know where the entrance to the platform was. And the more I really, really think about it, Ron has done nothing to help me, he's held me back from doing well at anything, except Quidditch."

"It gets better", the voice continued, "The headmaster and Mrs. Weasley have created an illegal marriage contract between you and Ginny."

"That makes sense, she's been obsessed with me ever since the first day at Kings Cross and this past year, I swear that I caught her ducking around a corner, like she was following me, or I would catch her staring at me in the Great Hall, or the library, or the common room."

"Well, it doesn't help matters any that her psychotic mother has been filling her head with visions of her wedding day to the boy who lived stories either."

"Is there anyway that I can put a stop to this, you obviously know that I wasn't raised in the magical world and I really know nothing about wizarding laws or marriage contracts and the like."

"I want you to read a couple of books that I am going to leave here for you to read and once you have finished them, it will be time for you to meet me in person and find out who you truly are."

"What do you mean, who I truly am?" asked Harry.

"There are many things that have been hidden from you and magic has had a very big hand in creating the person you are becoming. The magical world needs a hero that they can turn to who is outside the influence of the ministry, Lord Voldemort and even Albus Dumbledore, the true dark lord of this time. The wizarding world, particularly here in Britain, need a vigilante, someone who can exact justice on the dark presence and restore hope to the rest of wizardingkind."

"What do you mean that Albus Dumbledore is the real dark lord of this time?"

"Tom Marvolo Riddle was Albus Dumbledore's apprentice until Tom tried to kill him in his sleep one night and shortly after that, Lord Voldemort was born and took up the mantel of dark lord while Albus Dumbledore took up the mantel of leader of the light, although it came at the destruction of his best friend, Gellert Grindelwald."

"Who is Gellert Grindelwald?"

"Gellert Grindelwald was best friends with Albus and they had a plan for world domination starting with Britain and Germany, but after Tom tried to kill Albus, Albus had to keep his true identity secret, so he brought down the new rising dark lord of Germany to help maintain his light persona. Albus Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort have the same goals in mind, just vastly different ideas on how to reach them. But enough about that for now, I want you to read the two books I am going to leave you and then we will be able to meet."

"What two books?"

"The two books that just appeared on your desk in your room, one is on Occlumency, a protective mind magic and a book on Magical Contracts. You need to understand how to protect your mind from legilimency, a magic that allows a person to read another person's thoughts, and contract law so that you can understand how to break certain contracts that involve you and how the tournament that you were forced into was non-binding until you agreed to participate."

"Another masterful job by the headmaster, telling me that I had to participate and then having Mr. Crouch literally seal the deal when he said that I had to participate" raged Harry.

"Exactly, now get reading and I will be back in three days to start teaching you the ins and outs of politics and to finally introduce myself to you and reveal who you truly are."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: Wow, I never expected this kind of reception. Two days and 1803 hits at this posting. Thanks so much for the kind reviews.

A/N 2: There is a mild rape scene within this chapter. Nothing too graphic, but enough to get the point across. You have been warned.

It will be identified by a warning at the beginning.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Three

Two days had passed since his conversation with the voice in the bathroom in which more questions came to mind. He had returned to a more normal height, but he still found himself just shy of six feet, a good seven inches taller than he was when he returned from Hogwarts. The two feathers that were on his pillow, were hidden under the floorboards under his bed, he didn't want his aunt or uncle to find them, wondering where they came from and what kind of bird had feathers like that. Another question that was unanswered at the moment was the fact that he couldn't find any source of all of the blood on his bed sheets and clothes. He remembered looking at the bloody mess and he wished that they were clean and that tingling sensation was felt in his hands once more and as he watched, the bloody mess disappeared and left the sheets and clothing in a presteen condition.

After that, Harry had decided to read the Contracts book first, to read up on marriage contracts. There was no way he was going to be forced into marrying anyone, especially Ginny Weasley, the girl just outright gave him the creeps. He was fascinated by the Occlumency book even more. The idea of building a magical barrier to protect one's mind was amazing. He had had no problem focusing on clearing his mind, all he had to do was concentrate on a void and since he had lived for close to ten years in the cupboard under the stairs, stairing into black nothingness came easily to him. As the book described to him, once he cleared his mind, he could concentrate better on the task at hand.

First off, he had to organize every thought, idea and memory somehow. Harry settled on creating several photo albums, each idea, thought or memory was portrayed in a wizarding photograph. Knowledge learned from books and lessons were recorded page by page into still photos, referenced instantly by him and him alone. The book then described how to create defenses around his memories and ideas, to make it harder for anyone to gain access if they were able to bypass one's barriers.

His first line of defense was password protection, in parseltongue, on each photo, similar to the Marauder's Map. He then built a hidden vault around his photo albums with a password protected entrance, also in parseltongue. He then proceeded to create a replica of Hogwarts within his mind and hid the vault within a secret room that he made behind a wall in the Gryffindor common room. The last thing he did was to create a huge bubble around everything and once that was done, cast the fidilous charm on the bubble, making himself the secret keeper and hid the secret within one of the photoalbums.

So, here he was two days later thinking to himself that if anyone tried to break into his mind, all they would find was a huge, dark void with no barriers. It was a vast emptiness and since you had to know the secret to find his fortress, which was hidden within the fortress, Harry was pretty sure that his occlumency barriers should be impenetrable. Little did he know that anyone trying to breach his barriers would be lost in the vast expanse of darkness and that only he could retrieve someone once lost within.

WARNING

He was taking a break for the moment and he was laying on his bed thinking about Hermione and just how much her friendship meant to him when he thought he heard her voice calling out to him.

"Harry, help me." the voice sounded like it came from everywhere.

"Harry, help me," the voice came a second time, a little more force behind it this time, causing Harry to sit up in his bed, looking around for his friend.

The third time that "Harry, help me", was heard, the voice sounded frantic and Harry could envision Hermione in his head. With an intense desire, Harry disappeared from his bedroom at Number 4 Privett Drive and appeared, silently, upon a scene that made his blood boil immediately. Hermione was on the ground, her lips and nose were bloodied and swollen, her sweater was hiked up over her breasts, her bra was torn and tattered, hanging loosely to the right side exposing her breasts to the elements and her jeans and knickers were lying in pieces on the ground a couple of feet away, like they had been forcefully ripped from her body. His now ex-best friend was kneeling over her with his pants and boxers around his ankels on the verge of penetrating his best friend.

Instantly, Harry's anger came flooding forth which caused a reaction within his magical core and started a rapid transformation. A huge pair of white wings with golden tipped feathers started growing out of his back, tearing his T-shirt from the rapidly growing appendages. His fingernails elongated into eagle like talons and his face started to take on a lion like appearance, the snout protruding slightly to allow for the massive set of fangs that were starting to protrude from the snout. His height grew back to seven feet tall, his body bulking up in proportion to the added height. Once the transformation was complete, the creature reached forward with his left hand, complete with talons, and closed it around Ron's neck. Then with a violent jerk that nearly snapped his neck, he hoisted Ron off of Hermione and tossed him at a nearby tree, ten feet away. Only after the body had struck the tree and fell to the ground motionless did Harry return his attention to Hermione.

Upon seeing her naked form, he summoned her jeans to him and transfigured them into a robe that would cover her nakedness and give her some protection. He willed his body to give off a feeling of love and safety so that she would not recoil from him as he advanced towards her while trying to wrap her up in the newly created cloak. Only once he saw that she did not perceive him as a threat, did he advance and wrap the cloak around her. Her arms wrapped themselves around his torso, her violent sobs racking her body. He placed his hands on her shoulders and tried to calm her down. His hands started to emit a pale blue light and the sobbing girl started to relax, the terror of the moment fading fast as she fell into a dreamless sleep.

After laying Hermione back onto the grass, Harry finally looked around at his surroundings. He recognized it instantly as the apple orchard that was located between the swimming hole and the far end of the Weasley family Quidditch pitch. Once he knew where he was and that no further threats were looming, did he return his attention to Ron. The anger and fury hadn't yet abated, which caused Harry to stalk menacingly towards the would be rapist. He cast a wandless enervate at him and Ron looked up at the face of his ensuing doom.

A creature that stood at least seven feet tall was advancing on him in a very menacing manner and Ron was suddenly scared, very scared. A roar of righteous fury eminated from the creatures lips as it stalked towards him. It had a wingspan that had to be at least ten feett wide on either side and the face of a lion. A gryffin Ron thought, righteous fury be damned, this noble creature was here to exact bengeance on him for attacking an innocent and Hermione was definitely an innocent. For the first time in his life, Ronald Billius Weasley feared for his life, the notion that he had been led astray by Albus Dumbledore never even entered his thought process. His jealous and greedy nature made him into the way he was, Albus only influenced his attitude with gold. As he stared into the creatures golden coloured eyes, he suddenly realized that he couldn't move, it was like he was paralyzed.

When he was finally within five feet of Ron, Harry wandlessly raised him up to stand before him. As he stared into Ron's eyes, he saw no remorse for his actions, only the fear for his life and the fact that he would never be able to spend any of his friend Harry's money anymore. When Harry was done reading his mind, he used a sticking charm to hold Ron up off of the ground. Another two sticking charms had his wrists attached to two branches that spread out from the trunk of the tree about ten feet off of the ground, his pants and boxers still around his ankels. With a swipe of his hand, four claw marks became visible on Ron's torso, starting just above the navel down to his groin, passing to either side of his rather small appendage. After that, Harry summoned the redheads remaining clothes and cast another wandless spell that caused Ron's legs to spread apart. His feet were then forced back to the other side of the tree trunk where Harry then used his pants and boxers to bind his feet together.

Once the feet were bound and secure, he walked back around to face Ron directly and proceeded to gouge GREEDY RAPIST onto his chest with his right index talon. Satisfied with his results the creature/Harry turned away and walked back over to Hermione. Unknown to him, the scars that he had just inflicted onto his now ex-best mate could never be removed or hidden, his crimes exposed for the rest of his life. Once Hermione was safe, he would return to watch the aftermath of his vengeance. And with that, he bent down and scooped Hermione up into his arms. A thought and a moment later, they disappeared without a sound, a flash of flames dissipating into the air after their departure.

End of WARNING

A fraction of a second later, the Harry creature appeared with a still unconscious Hermione in his arms at the Granger residence, in Hermione's bedroom. Glancing around to get his bearings, the creature proceeded to carry Hermione over to her bed and wishing that the covers were pulled back so that he could place her in the bed. Immediately, a warm feeling emitted from his chest and a light tingling feeling in his fingers saw the bed covers pull themselves back. He lay her down in the bed and as he was pulling the covers back up to cover her, she began to stir.

As Hermione's eyes opened and she returned to alertness, Harry could feel the fear and anger that she was eminating, but when she finally laid eyes upon him, the fear and apprehension that she felt started to ebb away. She peered at him a little more closely and after staring into those golden coloured eyes, she noticed the green flecks floating around inside them. Then tentatively she said,

"Harry, is that you?"

The fury that was fueling the beast abated instantly as it felt the concern in her voice and Harry slowly started to transform back into his human form. It started with his wings shrinking and flowing back into his shoulder blades while his finger talons and face returned to their natural state. As this was going on, his body shrank as well until he was back to his five foot eleven inch form, his eyes slowly changing from their golden colour back to their normal emerald green, with the flecks of gold dancing within their depths. The T-shirt was in tatters and the blue jeans that he was wearing were hanging loosely off of his smaller waist, the belt that held them up was broken, laying loosely in the belt loops.

Once he was back to his new normal side, he quickly sat down on the bed and looked at his best friend, concern and worry etching his face.

"Are you alright Hermione?"

Hermione was still trying to grasp what had just transpired in front of her and was snapped out of her trance like state when Harry spoke to her.

"What, did you say something?"

"I asked if you were alright. Are you?" asked Harry.

I, I, I am now, thanks to you." Hermione replied.

"Can you tell me what happened."

"It started with a note from Ron. The Weasley family owl crashed into my writing desk while I was doing my summer homework with a note attached to its leg. And when I read the note, it was from Ron, it said that you had been hurt and were at the Burrow and wanted me there. I showed the note to my parents and they agreed to let me go, so I got changed and ran outside to hail the nightbus. Ron had explained how to get to his place and that he would meet me down by the road as the Burrow is under the protection of magical wards."

WARNING - Description of a Rape ahead

Harry wrapped his arms around his friend as she started to sob silently, "Come on Hermione, you're safe now, I won't let anything else happen to you."

After a few minutes of Hermione crying into his shoulder with him rubbing her neck and shoulders in a soothing manner, she started to calm down once more.

"It was so terrible," she began. "He met me on the road where the nightbus dropped me off and we proceeded to head towards the Burrow. I remember passing by the pond when he spun me around and tried to kiss me. I pushed him off and demanded to know what he was playing at. He went on rambling about how I was his and that you weren't supposed to be alive or some tripe like that. I started running towards the Burrow, intent on coming to your aid when he tackled me to the ground from behind. I tried to crawl away, but he had my legs pinned underneath him, so I tried to turn over so that I could beat him off with my hands. I succeeded in turning over and as I lashed out to hit him, he grabbed my arms and pinned them above my head with one hand. Then he started to rip open my blouse and I tried to buck him off. That's when he struck me, hard. He hit me so hard Harry, that I thought my face was crushed. I could taste blood in my mouth and all I could see was stars. I vaguely remember him tearing my blouse apart after that and ripping my bra off, and then I can remember my jeans being pulled off and my knickers being ripped away."

Hermione then buried her head back into Harry's neck and the sobbing started once more, even more violent this time. It took a much longer time for Hermione to calm down, while Harry was rubbing her neck and shoulders. He felt a mild tingling sensation in his fingertips, but couldn't understand why. If he had looked at his hand, he would have noticed that blue hue eminating from his fingertips once more.

Once she had regained her composure again, Hermione continued, "The next thing that I can remember was Ron pulling down his pants and kneeling in front of me. He forced my legs apart and groped my breasts for a couple of minutes and then as he was about to..."

The horror of the moment to much for her to handle caused her to go silent once more.

End of WARNING

"Its OK Hermione, he won't be attacking anyone else, ever again. I know that he will never be able to cover up what he did or the vengeance I visited upon him."

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione.

"When I appeared in the clearing and saw what Ron was doing to you, something inside of me snapped and I raged. I remember pulling him off of you and throwing him into a tree. I made sure that you were alright and then I went over and stuck him to a tree. I bound him to a tree Hermione, and then I marked his manhood and gouged greedy rapist onto his chest. I left him hanging there, exposed to the world announcing his sins to everyone."

Hermione's eyes widened at this revelation and then asked, "Do you remember changing?"


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N" Holy Avenging Angel Dobby, 3985 hits at press time, can you believe it.

No, Harry Potter, sir and I don't think that DnG can either. Look at him, he's sitting there in front of his computer, gobsmacked by the amount of people that have read his story so far.

Tell him to post the next chapter, even I can't wait to see what's going to happen.

Uh, OK then, um, Mr. DnG sir, could you post the next chapter, sir.

Gladly, here it is and everyone, Enjoy and send a review, it truly makes me happy knowing that you are all enjoying my time in JKR's sandbox.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Four

"What do you mean change?" asked Harry.

"Well, I remember a tall creature advancing towards me before Ron disappeared. The funny thing is is that I didn't feel scared of it and as it approached me, it wrapped me up in a cloak. I think it was trying to protect me from any embarrassment and I wrapped my arms around its torso, feeling safe for the moment. The next thing I knew, I was waking up here in my bed and then I watched as this nearly seven foot tall creature slowly change back in to you."

"Really." exclaimed Harry. "I don't remember that, all I really remember is that I heard your voice calling out to me for help."

"You heard me calling to you." said an astonished Hermione. "I thought that Ron was going to rape me and the only person that I wanted to help me at that moment was you, you're always saving me from trouble."

"And I would save you a thousand times, if only to see that shy smile of yours grace your face. Which reminds me, let me look at your face, he did a real number on you and we should see how serious the damage is."

Hermione then raised her head off of his shoulder and turned to face him. The vision of beauty that looked back at him shocked Harry to the core. Her busted nose and swollen lips were healed as though nothing had ever happened to her.

"Um, Hermione. Um, did you cast some healing spells on yourself?"

"No, why?"

"Um, because there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the vision of beauty that I see before me."

Hermione blushed at the compliment and raised her hands to her face. The skin felt unblemished, her nose wasn't crushed and the fat lips that she knew that she had were no longer present. Instantly, the horror of the previous event was forgotten and Hermione was transformed into her research mode.

"We're going to have to do some research on this, we need to find out what kind of creature that you transformed into. I think that we should start by sending off a letter to professor Dumbledore, he'll know all about what is going on."

"No Hermione, there is something you need to know about the headmaster." said Harry.

"Like what." said Hermione, her trust in authority figures showing as Harry was about to destroy her beliefs.

"I think that I should start with the Triwizard tournament. I had the cup in sight as I raced down the last leg of the maze when a gryffin stepped out in front of me."

Hermione gasped and said, "But that's impossible, gryffins are just creatures of legend, it says so in Hogwarts, A History."

"Well, that may be, but it bit me and I passed out. When I came to in the hospital wing, the headmaster was standing over me and as I opened my eyes, I think that he used legilimency on me. I remember watching the headmaster wince in pain as a voice started talking to me in my head. It told me that the headmaster was breaking the law by what he was doing and that the headmaster had planned on me reaching the cup first."

Hermione paled at the implications and said, "You mean, that was supposed to be you and not Cedric.", clutching Harry to her as if she couldn't believe the story that she was being told. "That can't be, professor Dumbledore only has your safety in mind, he told me so."

"When did he say this to you?" asked Harry.

"Come to think of it now, I can remember many times now when I have approached the headmaster about your well-being and each time I have come away confused, like he has cast a spell on me or something."

The voice spoke up at that moment and said to Harry, "He sure did, everytime your friend fought for your rights, the headmaster would obliviate her and send her on her way with feelings of gratitude and the knowledge that you were totally protected."

"Hermione", began Harry, "That voice just told me that the headmaster has obliviated you many times, to keep your suspicious nature under wraps. Every time that you went to him with concerns about me, he has obliviated you of those memories and sent you on your way making you feel gratitude towards him and supplying you with the knowledge that I was totally protected."

"How could he?"

"Its simple, that same voice has told me that the headmaster is actually a dark lord in disguise. He was friends with some bloke named Gellert Grindelwald and that Tom Riddle was the headmaster's apprentice until he turned on him."

"And do you think that you can trust this voice," demanded Hermione.

"I think so. I am going to meet this person sometime tomorrow so that he can teach me all about what has happened to me and stuff."

"What do you mean by 'stuff'" she demanded once more.

"Well, this voice has told me that magic itself needs a vigilante to exact justice on the darker parts of society here in Britain. Apparently things have gotten out of hand and none of the proper authorities are willing to do anything about it. From our discussions, I have determined that I am to become some type of political powerhouse by day and a vigilante by night, bringing righteous justice to those who deserve it."

"Right you are", the voice spoke up once more. I am not going to tell you just yet who I am, but I will provide you with the clue that I gave you before. My familiar was the one who bit you and, along with his life mate, they are the only two in existence."

"Hermione, the voice just provided me with a clue that I totally forgot about. I think that you might be able to help me with figuring out whom I am supposed to meet tomorrow."

"What clue?"

"Apparently, the gryffin that bit me was this person's familiar and that there are only two of them in existence."

Hermione's eyes instantly glazed over as Harry looked on. He knew that she was probably referencing every bit of material that she had ever read and moments later, he wasn't disappointed.

"Harry, I think that the voice is that of Godric Gryffindor. It says in Hogwarts, A History that Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw each had a gryffin as their familiar."

"Your friend is indeed correct, and you will get to meet myself and Rowena tomorrow. You can even invite your friend if you want, I think that she would get along well with Rowena."

"Hermione..."

"Yes."

"Um, how would you like to meet Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw tomorrow?"

"Most definitely."

"Well then its settled, I'll get in touch with you somehow in the morning and then we'll meet up with Godric and Rowena. In the meantime, I need to head back to the Weasleys. Godric had mentioned something to me and I want to spy for a little bit."

"OK", said Hermione, a little reluctantly, "But you be safe, I don't want you to get hurt." and with that statement, Hermione lent forward and placed a kiss on Harry's lips. "Thank-you for saving my life once again, my Avenging Angel."

The kiss startled Harry momentarily, but he quickly returned to his senses and said "No problem, like I said earlier, I would do it a thousand times." and with a picture of the scene of the attack in his mind, Harry disappeared from Hermione's room in a tiny burst of flame only to reappear a heart beat later in the trees nearby the scene of attack, the memory of her pressing her lips to his bringing a smile to his face. "By Merlin", thought Harry, "I could get used to that, I think that I am falling in love with the most beautiful woman in the world."

The scene that appeared in front of him was one of utter chaos. Arthur Weasley and the twins, Fred and George were standing on one side of the clearing while his wife, Molly and his daughter, Ginny were trying to pull Ron down from the tree. Albus Dumbledore was casting spells at Ron, but whatever he was casting weren't having any affect. Harry wondered if this was because of his increased magical power.

"Do something Albus." screamed Molly, "I can't believe that someone would attack my son."

Albus looked at Molly and said, "Whoever did this has cast some spells that I have never heard of, it doesn't matter what I do, I can't free Ron, nor can I seem to heal the wounds on his body", legilimency showing him what Ron had done, but not who the victim was or how he came to be in this position. But Albus new one thing for sure, Ronald Billius Weasley was punished for his crimes, and as an afterthought, he decided that the punishment was just and it fit the crime perfectly. If he couldn't remove the scars, then Ron's trespasses would be known to the entire world.

surreptitiously, Albus cast three spells towards Arthur, Fred and George. The knowledge of what they had seen was removed and a further compulsion charm sent the three Weasley males back to the house. Once they had disappeared into the house, Albus turned to Molly and said,

"I have read Ronald's mind Molly, and what I found was rather disturbing. Ronald was caught in the middle of raping some unknown girl and obviously, he was dealt with in a harsh but just manner."

"How can you call this just", Molly said, pointing a finger towards the words that were gouged into Ron's upper torso."

"Let me show you", Albus said and then he grabbed Molly's face and peered into her eyes. As Harry watched on, he seen the look of horror on Molly's face as it looked like she was being forced to relive Ron's attack. When Molly stepped back from Albus, she looked right at Albus and said, "I don't care what he did, I want whoever did this to him captured and sent to Azkaban, how dare someone mark a pureblood like that."

"Molly, if they were to use veritaserum on the boy, he would be found guilty of his crimes."

"I don't care, you're the fucking Chief Wizard and you can cover up his crime and then you can send every auror and hitwizard after whoever did this", pointing once again towards Ron.

"So much for the family of the light, eh", said Godric.

"Arthur and the twins are innocent, aren't they?" asked Harry.

"Oh, I think so, and the two older boys have no idea of what their mother and two younger siblings have been up to", said Godric.

"What about Harry, Albus", asked Molly. "How are we going to keep this hidden from him when he comes here later on this summer."

"I'll cast some glamour charms to hide the scars", said Albus already knowing that they wouldn't work, he'd already tried with no effect.

"What about that Hermione girl, I saw how close she was to Harry at the train station, that can't go on any longer, my Ginny here is supposed to marry Harry and according to your plan, him and your old apprentice are supposed to kill each other in this great heroic duel of light versus dark. And my Ginny needs to be married to him before that. Should I start sending the love ppotions keyed to Ginny then."

"That may be a good idea and when Hermione comes to the Burrow this summer, I will cast a loyalty charm on her keyed to you, Ron, Ginny and myself and a compulsion charm that will cause her to avoid Harry and then you can start on the love potions that are keyed to Ron. We may be able to cover up this fiasco after all", said Albus.

"Not if I can help it", Harry said to himself, "I should get back to my room before someone notices that I am missing. And then in the blink of an eye, he disappeared, the flames that were left behind went unnoticed, and the bonds holding Ron up disappeared, letting the rapist fall forward onto the ground, breaking his nose.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: It's press time again Dobby, can you ask DnG for the stats.

Um, sure, um Mr. DnG sir, what are the stats this time around.

Well, all of these curious readers have hit a grand total of 6628 hits, it just blows me out of the water at how much people are liking this story.

That's great Mr. DnG sir

It is and its also time for the next chapter, so to you all out there in fandom, read and enjoy, and if you have the time, send off a review, I like to hear from you letting me know if you like my story or not.

And thank you all that have reviewed, it really puts an author into a different plane of existence when they are complimented for their hard work.

Special mention to lordblink for spending countless hours on theories regarding this story and trial reading each chapter before they are posted.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Five

Harry couldn't believe his eyes. Here he was in Hermione's bedroom and she was walking towards him, that shy little smile of hers adorning her beautiful face. As she came nearer, she loosed the tie on her robe and it fell open, revealing her nakedness underneath. As she came to him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and started to nibble on his ear lightly. This action caused Harry to groan somewhat and found himself shifting slightly so that he could nip lightly at her ear in return. What happened next, he most definitely wasn't expecting, Hermione started licking his face. When her slobbery tongue invaded his nose somewhat and caused him to breathe through his mouth, it also snapped him out of the pleasant dream that he was having and back into reality.

When he came to, he snapped to full attention and immediately sat up. What greeted him were two pairs of golden eyes, and laughter. Staring back at him was the same gryffin that he had run into in the maze and another, slightly smaller one that was obviously a female and the larger one's mate. The laughter that assaulted his senses belonged to a man and a woman and as soon as Harry sat up in his bed, the man said,

"Good morning Harry, I'm Godric Gryffindor and this is my wife, Rowena Ravenclaw. It seems that our familiars like you."

Harry started sputtering, the drool from the two gryffins dripping into his mouth from their combined lick attack.

"How is this possible, I mean, if you two are alive, that would make you both over a thousand years old."

"Magic", replied Godric. Our familiars notified us that our services were required once more and magic has allowed us to return for a little while, to teach and train you on your path to fulfilling your destiny."

"And what exactly is my destiny", queried Harry.

"Well, as I told you earlier and as you have figured part of it out, I can try and explain what it is from my own perspective. Magic has foreseen a dark future ahead and has taken steps to stop it. Like in our time when Sal, Helga, Ro and myself were charged with making changes to the wizarding world, so too have you, Harry, been charged with bringing change to the wizarding world once more."

"What does this mean, exactly", asked Harry once more.

"It means that magic has decided that she needs a new champion to bring your world out of the darkness that it is falling in to. You are to help rewrite the laws, with the aid of your family name and the names of your allies in the political arena. On top of that, magic has granted you three gifts to take the war, silently, back to the dark members of your society."

"You mean like a vigilante, a hero that appears out of nowhere to bring justice onto the guilty and to protect the innocent."

"Exactly", said Godric. "And I think that you did a marvelous job last night."

"That reminds me", said Harry, "Did you hear all of the conversation at the Burrow last night."

"Yes, I did. Why", asked Godric.

"Then you know that Hermione is in some kind of danger. I have to do something to protect her."

"She is protected now, after last night's attack, Rowena has established a mental link with Hermione and is watching over her now. She will learn of this when we all get together a little later."

"OK, then can you tell me what kind of changes I have gone through?"

"Certainly", said Rowena, entering the conversation. "Like my husband said, you have been chosen to fulfill a particular job and magic is helping you out as much as possible. You don't think that Fawkes came to your rescue because of the headmaster do you? You were bitten by Sal's familiar, Sasha, and then Fawkes poured some of his tears into you. What know one knows until now is that Fawkes is actually Helga's familiar and is not the current headmaster's familiar, like he thinks that he is. Then there's Conan and Sonya here, they have been our familiars since we were charged with opening up the school and educating all of the young wizards and witches on how to use their magical abilities. Up until that point, just like it still is today, a young witch or wizard that comes into his magical adolescence and isn't trained on how to focus and harness their abilities, the usually end up going mad and dying at an early age. There were those that found others like themselves and formed covens and the like to help themselves survive and there were others that used the abilities for dark and nefarious purposes, but it wasn't until the four of us created Hogwarts and started to teach the magical world about magic, that the magical population started to flourish."

"And our predecessor", continued Godric, "Was the late, great Merlin. If it wasn't for all of his solitary work and knowledge that he left behind, we wouldn't have been able to teach half of what we know. He spent his entire life discovering the magics of the world and how to harnass its abilities. Conan, Sonya, Fawkes, Brin, Sasha and Evandor were all Merlin's familiars and closest allies when the four of us first met him, much the same way we are meeting you here today. Brin was another phoenix, Fawkes' mate, but she was destroyed by another dark lord of a bygone time. And Sasha's mate, Evandor, was killed when a cavern he was exploring collapsed during an earthquake while helping us discover the territory where Hogwarts now resides."

"That's terrible", said Harry. "And let me guess, like Fawkes is immortal, so was the bond between him and his mate."

At that moment, there was a flash of golden flames and Fawkes appeared, "Right you are, my little hatchling, that is why I bound myself to Helga and Sasha bound herself to Salazar. We both needed to bond to survive in the beginning."

"But I thought that you were Merlin's familiar?"

"The four of us that remained were", replied Fawkes, "Until Merlin poured all of his remaining magical essence into the original wardstone of the castle and that is why all of the familiars are still bound to Hogwarts in a way."

"What do you mean by that", questioned Harry, and as an afterthought, "How can I understand you all of a sudden."

"What it means, is that the four remaining familiars of Merlin bound themselves individually to Godric, Rowena, Helga and Salazar, and when it was time for them to pass on, like Merlin before them, they poured all of their remaining essences into the original wardstone of Hogwarts. And now that magic has need of you, we four are now bound to you as your new familiars and you will discover that you can talk to us all."

"But there is only three of you left, I killed Sasha in the Chamber of Secrets during my second year."

"That's true, my little Harry", a new voice said, "And that is why magic put the two of us together."

Harry had to pause and look around, he felt like he knew that voice somehow. And then he looke at Godric and Rowena and said, "I'm sorry, Fawkes has been talking to me and I don't want to appear rude."

"We know son, as we are bound to the castle too, we can talk to all of the familiars. just like you can", said Rowena.

There was a tapping at the window as Hedwig finally showed up on her journey home from Kings Cross. Harry went over to the window and opened it up so that Hedwig could fly in. She landed on his shoulder and Harry made his way over to her cage where he proceeded to set out her water dish and owl treats bowl. Absentmindedly, he talked to her like he always did, "Did you have a good flight back."

"Yes I did", was the curt reply, that new strange voice speaking once more.

Harry's head snapped around and looked at Hedwig, only to recognize that mirth contained within their depths.

"H H Hedwig, was that you?"

"Yes love, it is", and then Harry fainted.

HP HG HP HG

When Harry came to, he found himself laying on his bed, with his head in someones's lap, a set of warm, tiny hands running their fingers through his hair. When he opened his eyes and looked up, he was met with a lovely pair of honey brown eyes staring back at him.

"Your finally awake", said Hermione, laughter evident in her voice. Godric and Rowena had the pleasure of filling me in on your little fainting spell. You don't do simple, do you Harry Potter."

Feeling the love and caring and compassion that was roiling off of Hermione at that moment, caused Harry to do something that he would never have thought of doing a week ago. He twisted slightly in her lap and reached up, wrapped a hand around the back of her head and pulled her face towards his where he proceeded to placed a kiss on her beautiful lips. Then he swung his legs over the edge of the bed, sat up and said, "Thanks Hermione, I really needed that."

Hermione, lost in the moment heard what he said and smacked his arm while saying, "Prat!", the butterfly feeling within her stomach causing her to stare at the person in front of her who had saved her life so many times now. It was evident, she decided, that their lives were going to be intertwined forever and as she thought about it, she realized that she was already deeply in love with her best friend and that she would stay by his side forever.

Harry also noticed that Godric and Rowena were still in the room, but Conan, Sonya, Fawkes and Hedwig had all disappeared once more. Looking at Hermione and then towards Godric and Rowena, Harry started, "We have some questions that we would like answered, if that's alright."

"That's no problem", Godric said. "That's why we're here in the first place, to explain what has happened to you."

"First thing then, what happened to my eyes?"

"Simple, once the magical restraint that was binding your core started to weaken, your own magic surged forward and healed all of your prior injuries. Your body is now as it should have been without a certain headmaster's interference."

"So that would explain my body growing over seven inches during the night and everything else in proportion?"

"Exactly" said Godric.

"OK, next question" and looking at Hermione said, "I don't want you to get upset at this next question, OK."

Hermione looked into his eyes and after seeing the sincerity within, quickly agreed. Turning back to his mentors, Harry said, "I remember being attacked by my relatives downstairs when I first arrived home this summer and when I finally woke up, my bedsheets and close were covered in blood, but I couldn't find any injuries on my body and I found two feathers on my pillow. What exactly happened to me."

He heard Hermione gasp beside him and a moment later her soft, tiny hand was holding on to his, the waves of caring and compassion flooding his senses from their contact. Another question to ask about, he thought.

"Another easy question to answer", said Godric. "All of your familiars felt your lifeforce fading and came to you. They aided in unlocking your new abilities, and forced your body into your first full transformation. The two feathers that were left behind are an indication that it was successfull.

"I will assume then that I have healing abilities as one of my specialties and my transformation aided in my healing? And that would explain why Hermione was healed so quickly then?"

"Most definitely", said Rowena. "You have inherited some rather unique abilities from each of the four magical animals that have interacted with you. You have Phoenix tears, Bassalisk venom and Gryffin serum running in your bloodstream now. Each granting you different abilities. And your lovely owl, Hedwig, has passed on the ability to home in on any target, like all magical owls can."

"So what kind of abilities do I have or what can I expect to happen."

"From what we can understand, you have inherited the healing abilities and flame travel from the phoenix, your stare causes total immobility and the wounds that you inflict will never heal, an effect of the Bassalisk venom that is still coursing through your body and then from the gryffins, you have a beautiful set of wings which will allow you to fly and your tail has a stinger on the end of it that will allow you to inject a gryffin's serum into those you deem worthy."

"What does gryffin serum do?" asked Harry.

"It causes the person to never be able to lie again, ever. It can't be detected and even the most accomplished occlumenze can't defeat it."

"So what you are saying is that if I were to, say, inject Lucius Malfoy with my serum, he would never be able to lie ever again. Or Rita Skeeter would never be able to write her nasty lies, for that matter", a plan forming in his mind.

"Exactly", both Godric and Rowena stated together.

"So let me get this straight, I have a set of wings and a tail, a stare that can immobilize anyone, the ability to inflict marks that will never heal or allow magic to cover them up, healing abilities that I can use to heal any innocent victims, I can literally force people to tell the truth forever, and I can flame travel anywhere with the homing instincts of an owl."

"Pretty much", agreed Godric and Rowena, "And your roar while transformed has abilities too. It is emotional magic at its most powerful and will cause all of your enemies to flee in terror, kind of like a super powered patronus", finished Godric.

"Cool", said Harry, ""Just one more question, when do I learn how to transform?"


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N" Dobby

Um, yes Mr. DnG sir

Would you like to post the next chapter for me

Sure Mr. DnG sir, it would be my honour to

do that for you

And Dobby

Yes Mr. DnG sir

Could you let Harry Potter know that everyone seems to like his little adventure, 9,806 people have checked in already to check out his progress.

I can do that Mr. DnG sir...Um, Mr. DnG sir.

Yes Dobby.

Happy anniversary from me and Winky, Harry Potter is the greatest wizard ever and he told us that it was your anniversary today.

Thanks Dobby, and tell Dobby and Harry and Hermione thanks.

I'll get on it right away sir.

A/N 2: This is beyond my wildest dreams, I never expected such an overwhelming response to my story, so thanks from the bottom of my heart and everyone...ENJOY!

A/N3: oh yeah, DON'T KILL ME, and drop a review if you want, I like to hear your thoughts and how you perceive my story.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Six

Harry and Godric spent the next week working on Harry's ability to transform into the Harry creature. He got so good at it that he was able to transform into it within five seconds and he could do partial transformations as well. He could retain his facial features if he wanted, and his tail would only appear if he intended to use it to inject the serum, otherwise it wouldn't reveal itself. He could bring his talons out and retract them on their own and his stare affected Godric whether or not Harry was transformed, the ability to peer into one's mind to sift through their memories to determine the depth of their guilt or innocence was going to be a handy little tool.

As for his healing abilities, the blue energy that emitted from his finger tips while touching another person, healed any and all injuries on a person, but he was only willing to heal victims. The nauseating feeling that he had felt around Ron and his uncle were empathic in nature and fell under his newly found healing abilities. He was also able to emit a calming aura around him to help calm any would be victims who were in shock.

He found that he could 'flame travel' anywhere he could think of and if he had a specific person in mind, he would always appear right in front of them, about five feet away. He had put this ability to very good use, visiting with Hermione every night for a couple of hours and had met her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Granger, but they implored with him to call them by their given names, Dan and Emma. His feelings for Hermione had grown as well and he had asked her to be his girlfriend at last.

Hermione had spent just as much time with Rowena as Harry had with Godric and Harry could only speculate what they talked about and what Hermione had learned. She had informed him that everything that she was learning was for their future and the future of wizardingkind, but was unwilling to elaborate any further until a plan was solidly in place. Until then, he was to continue to train with Godric and that he would be notified when it was time to move forward.

He had spent the last two days working on disillusioning himself before and after each transformation, discovering that his power level was so high that no one would ever be able to dispel the charm. He had also learned that the three magical essences that were now part of his blood stream increased his magical potential infinitely, magic it seemed, wanted changes wrought and was making sure that her champion had the necessary abilities to do so.

Wandless and wordless magic became as easy to Harry as any seventh year student found transforming that dreaded toothpick into a needle was. Only with Harry, it was different then it would be for anyone else, he merely had to think of the end result and will it to happen, there was no need for long incantations or silly wand waving anymore, a certain potion master's words coming to mind.

At the end of that week, Hermione and Rowena finally came forward to explain their progress and all four people crowded around the small desk in Harry's now expanded room, it was rather small, after all, for one person to get around in, let alone four people. As Harry sat back and listened to Hermione and Rowena talk, he admired Hermione even more. She had taken it upon herself to read up on everything Wizengamot related and had even got her hands on the original copy of the legislation that brought the Wizengamot into being and the laws that were put in place to govern all magical species and still interact with the non-magicals. She had learned how the pure bloods had made changes to the laws, adding a stipulation here, or a slightly different interpretation there until all of the pure bloods were, for lack of another description, untouchable. The original laws were still in place, but with all of the alterations and edicts that had been added over the past seven hundred years, wizarding Britain had a totally different look and feel than was originally intended.

It was discussed at great lengths how to return the laws to their original meanings and bring back equality across all of the races, however, it was determined that the secrecy act would be kept in place within Britain. With the non-magical population at almost six billion people worldwide, the magical population was far outnumbered with only about a million magicals around the world. The situation in Britain was different again, with a mundane population of around seventy million to the roughly one hundred thousand witches and wizards that made Britain home. The main problem that they encountered was the main reason Harry had been chosen by magic to fulfill her needs, corruption was absolute among the leaders which in turn allowed for the likes of Albus Dumbledore and Tom Riddle to be who and what they are, evil dark lords. Wizarding Britain was stagnant and refused to change, the masses controlled by the relatively small group of pure blooded eliteists, who used fear to keep control. It was after all, these families that produced a dark lord every generation to keep everyone else in check.

It was during one of these planning sessions, that Harry was inside his mental fortress, arranging thoughts, ideas and memories that he came across a memory from the day that he finally met Godric and Rowena. It didn't click at the time, but now as he watched the memory that was now a wizard photograph, Harry caught the reference when Rowena called him 'son'. There was a glimmer of something there and Harry decided to ask her about it.

"Um, Rowena."

"Yes Harry."

"I was just going over some memories and cataloguing them, when I came across the memory from the day when I first met you and Godric. You called me son and there was a strange look in your eye when you said it, would you care to explain what it was." asked Harry.

"I can now, now that you have asked. You are not only the last Potter, but you are also the last direct descendant of Godric and myself. We couldn't say anything until you asked or went to Gringotts and asked for an inheritance test, and before you get angry, it was the only way to ensure that our knowledge and to make sure that our last direct descendant was kept safe and not coerced into revealing our secrets. Now I must inform you that you need to get to Gringotts and arrange an inheritance test and take up your mantel as Lord Potter and Lord Gryffindor", said Rowena.

"And Lord Slytherin and Lord Hufflepuff, not only by conquest with your victory over Lord Voldemort when you were a baby, but as the last living descendant as well. Your mother was the first female since Helga and Salazar gave birth to a squib daughter to have any magic manifest through that line. Of course, Tom is the last living male descendant of the Slytherin line, but your defeat of him nullified that claim", added Godric.

"So what you are saying is that I am basically the last living descendant to all four founders", queried Harry.

"Not the last living one", said Rowena, "But the last living descendant that can lay claim to all four houses at once. There are other people that can lay claim to one or two houses, Your friend Nevil is one such person. Where you are the first in line, he is the next closest to inheriting the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw lines. But your claim supercedes his and any others that are out there."

"So what does this mean for me?" asked Harry.

"It means", interjected Hermione, before Rowena could reply, "That you are one of the most powerful people in all of wizardingkind. Only the Emrys house holds more power than the Founder's houses and then the Potters, Longbottoms, Blacks, Bones and Greengrasses are the next most powerful houses in the Wizengamot, which means that if you were to get Nevil, Sirius, Susan Bones and Daphne Greengrass to ally themselves with you, you would virtually control sixty percent of the votes in the Wizengamot and you could make all of the changes required to bring wizarding Britain back to its original days of equality."

"Ninety percent", said Fawkes. "My old friend, Merlin, just informed me that since he never had any offspring, he has named you his magical heir, which will show up on the inheritance test."

"Wow", said Harry, "I see what you mean when magic wants something done in her favour, she goes all out. Now all I need to do is start exposing the darker individuals for what they are and cleanse Britain of their taint."

"But you can't do anything yet", said Hermione, "At least, not until your sixteenth birthday which is the day after my parents and I are due to return from our trip to France for two weeks."

"Oh, I forgot about that", said Harry. "I'm going to miss you while your gone Mione."

"And I'll miss you too, Harry, but you could always visit now that you have mastered your travel abilities."

"Yes I could", said Harry, visions of Hermione in a bikini running through his head,yes I could, very much indeed he thought.

"But you also need to make it to Gringotts and get the inheritance test done before then, so that you can show up in the Wizengamot chambers on your sixteenth birthday and claim your seats and voting rights", said Godric.

"And start to bring down Albus Dumbledore", said Rowena.

"And once that is done", continued Godric, "Our tiny bit of this future is done and we will have to return our magical essences to Hogwarts. But you will still be able to talk to us, just visit my hidden chambers, you know how to find them now and reawaken our portraits."

"We wil", said Harry as he glanced over at his girlfriend, who looked exhausted, "But I think that we should call it a day, it looks like Hermione is about to fall asleep sitting up."

"Alright then, just call for us if you need us, but once your sixteenth birthday comes, we won't be able to leave the castle and our portraits anymore."

And with that, Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw faded from Harry's tiny room at Number 4, Privett Drive, never to return. Once the two founders had left, Harry grabbed his girlfriend's hand and led her over to his bed where he proceeded to lean against the wall at the head of his bed and allowed Hermione to cuddle into his chest.

"Do you think we will win Mione?"

"Of course we will, your the greatest wizard I have ever met and there's not an evil bone in your body that would otherwise stop you from fulfilling magic's charge."

Harry could sense the honest sincerity and the love that she felt for him rolling off of her in waves, it had a calming effect on him and it seemed to boost his confidence level. As he drifted off to sleep, for the first time that he could remember, Harry Potter thought that his life was going to turn out alright.

HP HG HP HG

An hour later, Harry was jolted out of his sleep, a loud banging on his door responsible for waking him up. He realized that Hermione was also just waking up as she had fallen asleep leaning against his chest.

"Boy, I know that you're in there, unlock this door before I break it down", roared his uncle Vernon.

Harry chuckled at his uncle's tirade. A week ago, they had almost killed him and locked him in this hell hole and now only a scant few days later, they were unable to enter his room. Just wait until they see how much I have grown, his senses warning him of ill intent.

"Hermione, love, you need to move a little bit so that I can see what my uncle wants."

"Be careful, I don't want to see you get hurt anymore."

"I don't think that it will be me that gets hurt, I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve now, so to speak, that will protect me", he said as he got up off of the bed and made his way over to the door.

His uncle banged on the door and yelled once more, "I'm warning you, if you don't open this door in the next five seconds..."

At that exact moment, Harry cast a wandless spell, cancelling all of the locking and privacy charms around the door and wrenched said door open.

"Or what!", demanded Harry, "What are you going to do uncle, try and kill me again. It didn't work last time and it won't work this time, either."

"Why you little Freak, I'll show you how to treat your elders, I'm going to beat the freakishness out of you if its the last thing I do."

"Oh really", said Harry, his eyes staring defiantly into his uncles.

Vernon went to punch his nephew when he suddenly realized that he couldn't move. "What have you done to me boy", demanded Vernon.

"Nothing yet uncle, maybe a little wandless magic, its not detectable by the ministry, so I won't get into any trouble for it, but I need to teach you a lesson. I have grown tired of you treating me like a slave, worse than a slave actually, they have some rights where you have given me none."

While he was saying this, Harry cast a wandless numbing spell at his uncle's butt cheek and willed his tail to come out. Once out, it snaked its way around Harry and his uncle and then Harry stung his uncle, injecting his serum into his uncle's fat, walrus like body. Once it was done, he stepped back from his uncle and asked, "Why do you hate me so much."

He could feel the greed pouring off of his uncle even before he replied, "We only agreed to take you in once your headmaster fellow agreed to pay us one thousand of your wizarding coin thingys, galleons or something like that per month."

Behind him, he heard Hermione gasp and, over his shoulder, he asked, "What's wrong Mione?"

"That's outrageous, do you know how much one thousand galleons is?" asked Hermione.

"No, not really. Is it a lot." asked Harry.

"Is it a lot, its a bloody fortune is what it is. They've been collecting ten thousand pounds a month to keep you here."

Harry's anger flared slightly as his eyes started to change from their normal emerald green to a golden colour, righteous fury fueling the change. His uncle watched the change with fear evident for the first time in his life, maybe greed wasn't the way to go he thought. Little did he know that that thought just saved his body from some very excrutiating pain, Harry had seen the remorse in his eyes and he could sense something else as well. Peering into his uncle's eyes, Harry sifted through his uncle's memories until he came across the deal with the headmaster. What he found made him sick, Albus Dumbledore had modified his uncle's and his aunt's memories and had placed behaviour modifiers deep inside their brains. Using his empathic healing abilities, he slowly reversed the damage and as he watched, his uncle's entire demeanor changed right then and there.

Harry was able to bring forth some memories that had been locked away and he viewed his uncle's memories of before he came to live here. He saw memories of his parents and his aunt and uncle visiting and different memories where his aunt and uncle were fawning over him, like they did with Dudley now-a-days. He watched how the manipulations of one man had turned this loving person into a man of vile, cruel and bitter hatred. Hopefully the healing process that had just instigated would return his once loving uncle to him. He would have to check his aunt and cousin as well, if he could get his remaining family back, it would be more than worth the effort.

Then his uncle did something totally unexpected, he reached forward and gave his nephew a hug while saying, "I am so sorry, so sorry, your mother will hate us forever because of what we have done to you".

Godric Gryffindor was right about one thing, Albus Dumbledore was worse than Tom Riddle ever thought of being.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: Thanks for all of the great reviews and interest in my story. Here is the next chapter.

A/N 2: Special thanks to xtumshie for pointing out the error I made in the previous chapter as to the population of London and Britain, it has since been corrected.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Seven

Harry had checked and to both his and Hermione's horror, they had found similar damage done to his aunt Petunia's mind. Dudley was a different breed altogether, the way that he had been raised for the past fifteen years had created the person he was now. He was a bully, there was no way around it. On top of that, Harry discovered that he was into using and selling drugs and his little gang like to force some of the neighbourhood girls into sexual acts, not exactly rape, more like exploitation. Using his new abilities, he tried to remove the baser instincts that he had learned from his aunt's and uncle's treatment of Harry as he grew up and with any luck, the willingness to be a bully would lessen, only time would tell.

Once he was done healing his relatives, Harry wanted to transform right there and then and search out Albus Dumbledore and tear him a new one, but Hermione, who was just as furious at finding out at what a former hero of hers had done, became the more level headed of the two and stopped Harry from running off and ruining all of the hard work that they had accomplished with Godric and Rowena.

"If you run off now", she had begun, "Then you won't be able to expose all of his evil deeds in front of the Wizengamot and bring him to his knees where it will hurt him the most".

She was right of course and after shaking hands with his uncle and giving his aunt a hug and a kiss on her cheek, the two lovestruck teenagers said their good-byes and then Harry took Hermione in his arms and instantly reappeared in the Granger rec room. They appeared inside the doorway so that they wouldn't startle Hermione's parents if they were in the room. And sure enough, they were there watching a romance story, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. It turned out that the evil character in the story, played by Alan Rickman, looked exactly like their greasy haired potions master, Severus Snape. Everyone had a good chuckle at this and then Harry and Hermione asked if they could go for a walk, it was only early evening after all.

Hermione's parents had no problem giving the two teenagers permission to go for a walk. Secretly they admired the boy, and how he seemed to draw their otherwise booksmart daughter out of her self-imposed exile. Hermione never had any friends growing up, always picked on and bullied because of her bookishness and that damnable know-it-all attitude that she had. But this charming young lad seemed to have drawn her away from those books and after hearing what her other so-called friend had tried to do, they were thankful for this young boy, no man for saving their daughter once more.

So this is where we catch up to our favourite couple, walking hand in hand throughout the upper class neighbourhood of Crawley. Harry was impressed with the wealth of the neighbourhood, glimpses of mansions seen through the lush trees that the area had been developed out of. The whole area was designed with privacy and security in mind, but the overall feeling that the neighbourhood gave off was one of peace and serenity. So, Harry and Hermione were doing what any teenagers who were in love would do, that is, they would laugh and hold hands and occasionally they would duck into the trees and kiss and it was while they were in the shadows kissing that Harry felt a dark presence, one second it wasn't there and the next second it was.

Instantly, Harry tensed and Hermione looked at him questioningly. "What's wrong Harry?" she asked.

Placing a finger on her lips, he leaned in and whispered into her ear, "Mione, I just felt an evil presence enter your neighbourhood, I think that I should get you home where you will be safe and sound and then I am going to do a little scouting to find out what has my senses going haywire, alright?"

"Alright, but I want you to come back to me afterwards and tell me what you find, I need to know that your safe too, you know. I love you."

They reappeared a second later in the Granger home, the feelings of love flowing off of Hermione in waves strong enough, that it made Harry's heart sore with joy. He still couldn't believe that his best friend was his girlfriend and now she said that she loved him and he could really and truly sense it. He looked into her honey brown eyes and said, "I love you too Mione, I think I have ever since that first day that I saw you on the Hogwarts Express. We'll talk some more about this, but I have to go, I wouldn't want any Death Eaters trying to find your house, so I must go."

"You be careful and remember to disillusion yourself,Godric didn't teach you how to do that for nothing" and then leaned in and gave him an intense passion filled kiss. "You come back to me."

Then, to her own delight, Harry transformed in front of her, the soon to be heroic persona of the wizarding world standing there in his seven foot tall frame, his wings barely abled to fit inside the foyer of the Granger home. Slowly he started to fade from view as the disillusionment charm overtook his body and just before he flamed out, he heard Hermione's last words, "You come back to me, my Avenging Angel."

Harry reappeared back in the same place where he had been kissing Hermione moments earlier, the words Avenging Angel echoing in his ears. He liked the sound of that and decided that would become his new persona, The Avenging Angel, the one who will strike fear into the hearts of the dark and unjust, the new champion of Magic. He walked out of the trees and flew up into the air, his gryffin eyes had now problem scanning the area in the dark, they were even sharper than an eagle's eyes. As he soared up to about a hundred feet, high enough to fly over the surrounding trees, he started making his way towards the evil presence that he felt.

HP HG HP HG

Walden Macnair, executioner for the Department of the Regulation of Magical Creatures and one of Lord Voldemort's inner circle had a very sadistic side to him. He loved his forays into the muggle world where he could unleash torture and mayhem on the unsuspecting filth. He especially loved casting the cruciatus curse on the males of every family that he visited, while forcing the females into degrading acts of debauchery. He used the imperious curse to force the sons to rape the mothers and daughters and then he would end each of his little games by imperioing the mother into gutting each of her children with a sacrificial blade that he would provide. Once all of the innocents were disposed of, he would then force the woman to kiss her husband while she slit his throat. Once that was done, he would then rape the woman repeatedly until his lust was satiated and then end her life with the Avada Kadavra curse.

Tonight found the Death Eater apparating into the posh upper class neighbourhood of Crawley. He knew that the wealthy of the muggle world resided here and his master had just charged him with increasing his masters holdings by forcing the wealthy to hand over their fortunes, before killing them of course, so Walden Macnair had apparated into Crawley, intent on fulfilling his master's needs and having a little fun of his own while he played his little game of torture and mayhem. Unknown to him, the soon to be unveiled Avenging Angel felt his presence as soon as he had appeared in Crawley and little did he know that he would be the buzz of the wizarding world tomorrow.

As he made his way onto the property of Lord Talbot, CEO of Barclays of England, and a personal business associate of Ragnok, the director of Gringotts the wizarding bank, he was sure that once the night was over, his lord and master would have millions of galleons under his grasp and that a clear message would be sent to the goblin nation for their refusal to join Lord Voldemort. Little did he know just how far reaching tonights events would have on the overall bearing of Britain come the morning, or the terror that he would experience himself.

He knew that the Talbots had three children, a boy whose age was fifteen, and two girls, ages twelve and nine. He was going to enjoy this evening, forcing the boy to rape his mother and older sister, he would personally take care of the youngest daughter this night, his twisted mind craving the cries of the small child as he would defile her. And once he was done that, he would force this Lord Talbot to sign the documents that his master had created. The documents would see the entire control of the bank handed over to his master and the millions of muggle pounds contained within their vaults.

He cast silencing charms around the area as he approached the house, he didn't want any unwanted visitors while he had his fun and then he made his way up to the two huge, oak front doors and knocked. A moment later, the door was opened by a stately looking man with well mannered hair and a youthful appearance about him.

"Can I help you?" the man inquired.

"Lord Talbot I am assuming." said the Death Eater.

"Yes, and you are...", but he was cutt off as the Death Eater pulled out a thin piece of wood and pointed it at him. He heard the man utter something and the next thing he knew was extreme pain.

HP HG HP HG

As Harry flew towards the evil presence, he crested the trees that surrounded one of the largest houses that he had ever seen. Hermione sure lives in a nice neighbourhood, he thought to himself. What he seen below him though, caused him to halt in his flight and he hovered momentarily taking in the situation below him. As he flew closer to the scene, he passed through some kind of barrier and a man's voice could be heard shrieking in pain. As Harry looked on, he watched the sickly yellow light of the cruciatus curse strike the man for a long ten seconds. When the other man let the curse go, he turned around as if scanning the area for any potential threats and then shoved the writhing man back into the house with a flick of his wand and followed him in, the door closing behind as he went.

Harry hung there, momentarily stunned. He recognized that face, it was the executioner that was sent to kill Buckbeak and was one of the Minister of Magic's friends. Godric was right, there was a lot of corruption in this world that need to be removed and tonight would see the first of many exposed for their crimes. He remembered the man's name now and had to stop him before anything more terrible could be done to the innocent man or his family. Harry landed on the steps leading up to the doors, and still disillusioned, made his way along the front of the building, looking through the windows to try and see what was going on.

The third window that he came to found the man wearing the black cloak forcing the man, his wife and three children into the comfortable looking sitting room and before he could cast another spell, Harry disappeared and reappeared right behind Walden Macnair, the disillusionment charm dispelled and his magical aura emitting its calming ability. All five non-magicals calmed at his appearance, even if his visage was rather scary to look upon. His golden eyes were blazing with power and then he let out his screech of righteous fury. With years of working with various wild animals, the urge to flee was lessened and instead of running, like his mind was screaming to do, Macnair turned to face the unseen threat with his wand raised and a curse on his lips, but as soon as he seen the eyes, he froze, a puddle starting to form on the hardwood floor at his feet, he had just seen his death, he knew it.

Harry stared into the man's eyes, filtering through the man's memories of his entire life, and learned how by the age of eleven he had killed his father, and had raped his mother and younger sisters for years after. He watched as the future Death Eater tortured everyone that he had contact with, enjoying the fear that he instilled in them with his vile threats. He watched as Macnair attended Durmstrang School of Dark Arts and his fateful meeting with Lucius Malfoy and the vile acts he had to perform for his soon to be master before he was branded with the dark mark. He watched as Lucius bribed the minister of magic into giving Walden the position of executioner for the Department of the Regulation of Magical Creatures. He watched as the Death Eater killed many innocent creatures and viewed the countless non-magicals that he had tortured and killed over the ttwenty plus years as a marked follower of Lord Voldemort. And he learned about where other Death Eaters lived, like Augustus Rookwood, Peter Jugson, Jules Mulcevar and Peter Travers.

Then Harry saw the reason that he was here and looked towards the man who was still shaking from the effects of the cruciatus curse and said in a low, gruff voice, "You know Ragnok, the director of Gringotts?"

"W w w why, y y ye do", the man said having troubles talking.

With Macnair frozen where he stood, The Avenging Angel walked over to the shaking manand said, "Don't be afraid", while he laid his hands on the man's shoulders. A bluelight eminated from his hands and the man visibly stopped shaking. The rest of his family watched on in amazement as this creature, no this being, no this Angel saved them from certain torture and probably much worse, and now it looked like he was healing their husband/father. They couldn't believe that a hero right out of fantasy was hear in their midst, protecting them.

When he felt that everything was back to normal in the man, Harry stood back and in that low, gruff voice said, "This man here", indicating the Death Eater, "was here tonight to get you to sign over control of your bank to a terrorist and then he was going to kill you all. I suggest that you contact Ragnok as soon as possible and get him to erect some protective wards around your property, I don't think the terrorist will take too kindly to my interference and may send more people after you. I will take this piece of trash to the Ministry of Magic and put him on display, exposing his crimes for all to see."

And with that, Harry grabbed ahold of Walden Macnair and disappeared in a burst of flame. Little did he know that Lord Talbot would be in conversation with Ragnok, leader of the goblin nation within five minutes, relaying the story of what just happened, nor that he was about to be crowned The Avenging Angel.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: Thanks to all who have enjoyed this story so far, your reviews really help boost one's confidence, but alas it seems that the old proverb"You can please some of the people, some of the time, but you can't please all of the people, all of the time" rings true again.

15850 hits to my story before a bad comment tells me that I must be doing something right, so here is the next chapter for everyone to read, enjoy and hopefully give a review afterwards.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Eight

Amelia Bones woke up at six o'clock am sharp everyday. She was a woman who had a morning routine that she followed religiously. Up at six, get dressed into her exercise clothes and make her way to the family training room. There she would run around the indoor track for about half an hour, getting her blood pumping and generally loosening up. Once the laps were done, she would complete a set of one hundred crunches, one hundred sit-ups and one hundred pushups. She had worked hard all of her life to get to where she was today, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, DMLE for short, and although she wasn't a large woman, she could hold her own in a duel, only Alistair 'Mad Eye' Moody and Filius Flitwick, the former European dueling champion and current Charms professor at Hogwarts could beat her in a duel. Plus the venerable old auror had taken her on as a newbie and taught her dirty tactics that had helped her to survive many a fight with the Death Eaters during the reign of Lord Voldemort, a reign that saw her husband, brother and sister-in-law killed by Lord Voldemort and his band of merry idiots, the pure blood fascists.

She was only one of two women within the wizarding world that could hold her own in the male dominated society at this point in time. Augusta Longbottom was the other woman at present that could hold her own against the corrupt ministry, although there was a new auror cadet that was making waves, a Nimphodora Tonks. She remembered the other women who had gone up against the pure blooded idiots and lost, Lily Potter, Alice Longbottom, her sister-in-law Catherine and although it was deemed a magical accident that killed her, her very best friend, Celene Lovegood. As she remembered her friends that she had lost she made her way back to her bed chambers at eight o'clock am where she proceeded to shed her sweaty clothes and head to her ensuite for her morning shower.

Ten minutes later she emerged, dressed in clean clothes and her hair wrapped up in a towel. After dropping the towel from her hair and a quick twist an a couple of flips with her wand, her hair was dry and neatly styled in its usual manner. She grabbed her monacle off of the dresser and put it in place, covering up the only scar that remained from a prior Death Eater encounter. She then proceeded out of her room and walked across the narrow hallway to knock on her niece's door and called out, "Susan, its time to get up, breakfast in fifteen minutes."

Amelia then made her way to their owlery where she gave the family owl, and the two ministry owls that were waiting for her, a couple of owl treats each. Once she retrieved the morning paper and the letter from the ministry owls, she sent them on their way and made her way to the diningroom where her breakfast was waiting. The family elf, Susie always had Susan's and her breakfast ready for seven thirty am sharp, unless Susan was away at school. As she entered the diningroom, she found that her niece was there and said, "Morning Susan, did you sleep alright?"

"Great as always auntie, I still don't understand why I have to get up so early, its summer holidays."

"You'll get used to it dear, a successfull woman..."

"Gets up early to beat the men to the punch", finished Susan, who had heard this speech for as far back as she could remember.

"Now, now Susan, don't be too nasty this morning, its not becoming of a young lady of your station to act like that", said Amelia as she laid out the morning paper with one hand and took a swig of coffee from the cup that she held in the other.

"Anything interesting in the paper auntie", asked Susan before she took a bite from the piece of toast that she had in her hand.

"The headlines say that a pure blood was attacked two nights ago, but there is no suspects in the crime."

"Does it say who it was and are there any details."

"It says here that Ronald Weasley, fifteen, of Ottery St. Catchpole, was attacked two nights ago by an unknown assailant. It doesn't give anymore information than that, but a reward is being offered by the Weasleys to encourage anyone who knows of the attack to turn the culpret in, so that they can be charged and sent to Azkaban.

"I don't care who did this to my Ronny, I want whoever did this captured and sent to Azkaban, they can't do what they did to my little boy and get away with it", shrieked Molly Weasley, the boy's mother.

"I'm not surprised", said Susan, "Ron is always shooting his mouth off at school and he probably pissed someone off and they waited until the summer holidays to get their revenge."

"Oh", said Amelia.

"What is it", asked Susan.

"It says here that an associate of Ragnok, the director of Gringotts here in Britain, was attacked by Walden Macnair, the head of the Department for the Regulation of Magical Creatures last night. It goes on to say that a Lord Talbot, a muggle banker, was held under the cruciatus curse by Mr. Macnair last night and that Mr. macnair was about to do some unpleasant things to the family when an angel appeared on the scene and stopped the assault."

"An angel", asked Susan. "Is there a description.

"It says that a creature that was about seven feet tall appeared as Mr. Macnair was about to cast another curse on Lord Talbot, but the angel creature roared and then spun him around and somehow froze him in place. He then went over and healed Lord Talbot from the effects of the cruciatus curse." Amelia paused and let out a whistle of amazement at that news. "It must be an angel", she continued, "No one has ever been able to cure anyone of the aftereffects of the cruciatus curse before, not even Fawkes, Albus' phoenix has that ability"

"Does it say anything else."

"Nothing that's important, except that Macnair hasn't been located yet this morning, apparently the angel creature left with him after the attack. Oh, wait a minute, it says here that the Talbot family wish to send their gratitude to their Avenging Angel."

"Avenging Angel, has a nice ring to it, don't you think auntie? And isn't Walden Macnair one of those You-Know-Who followers that got off by claiming he was under the imperious?"

"Yes he was and yes he did, but he's still one of those that march around the ministry spouting his muggle hatred to anyone who will listen anymore."

"It seems that he may not have been very truthful thirteen years ago when all of You-Know-Who's followers were brought to trial", said Susan.

"Right you are, right you are", replied Amelia. "I might have to revisit some of those files that are still kicking around, but a department head...come to think of it, there are a lot of department heads that were You-Know-Who followers and the rumors regarding the young Diggory boy.." Amelia's faced paled at the implications.

"What is it Auntie? Are you alright?"

"Just a terrible thought, Susan, just a terrible thought, nothing to worry about. Now, don't get into any trouble today, I've got to head into work, its almost eight o'clock."

"Alright Aunt Amelia, I'll behave and I'll see you for dinner tonight then."

"OK, see you tonight then. Love you", Amelia called over her shoulder as she headed for the flue in the family room.

"Love you too", was Susan's reply as her Aunt disappeared down the hallway.

HP HG HP HG

When Amelia walked out of the flue in the Ministry atrium five minutes later, it was to total bedlam. People were running around and screaming and yelling. Those that were screaming was because of the fear that she could see displayed on their faces, while the others that were yelling were doing it because of anger, that too was written all over their faces.

"Go figure", she thought to herself. "What a way to start a Monday, oh well, at least I had a quiet weekend with my niece."

As she made her way further into the atrium, towards the lifts that would take her to her office on the second floor, she noticed a huge crowd gather around the Fountain of Magical Brethren. Figuring that this was the cause of the disturbance, she diverted in that direction to hopefully sort out the problem. As she got closer, Alistair appeared at her side out of nowhere.

"Wait until you see this Amelia, the bastard got what he right deserved, he did, as far as I'm concerned", said Mad Eye.

"What are you talking about Alistair", asked Amelia.

"Its that Macnair fellow that's in the papers this morning, someone's hung

him on the Centaur's backside."

Amelia almost snorted the coffee that was drinking as she said, "Your kidding, right?"

"No I'm not. Wait until you see him, he's on display for everyone to see and we can't get 'em down, no matter what spell we use".

As they finally closed in on the fountain, people recognized Amelia and Alistair and parted the way, granting them direct access to the statues in the fountain. When Amelia saw what was causing the commotion, she did a mental jig in her head, Macnair was suspected to have been one of the Death Eaters who was responsible for her brother's and sister-in-law's death. As she looked upon the scene, she realized that the Centaurs tail was raised and was draped over his head, but on closer inspection, it became clear that Macnair's head was literally stuck up the centaurs ass. The words Child Rapist, Murder and Torturer were carved into his back. As she glanced around, she noticed that Rita Skeeter was there, interviewing anyone that would talk to her and her cameraman,Bozo was taking lots of pictures.

"Great", she thought to herself, "I wonder what kind of story will come of this? I can just picture the headline, evil ministry receives justice, made to pucker up to all of the creatures that he degraded over his career."

As she was standing there staring at the display, a burst of flame in front of her caused her eyes to momentarily go out of focus. When her eyes had cleared, there was a roll of parchment hovering in front of her, Amelia Bones clearly written along its length. She quickly drew her wand and cast all of the detection spells that she knew of and only when they all came back negative, did she reach out and grab the letter. As she unfurled the document, she read the following statement.

Dear Amelia Bones"

Greetings and Salutations. It seems that this vermin was out doing his masters bidding last night when I happened upon the scene. This Death Eater scum was caught in the middle of casting the cruciatus curse upon a non-magical, but not just any non-magical. His name is Lord John Edward Talbot and that is significant because he holds similar titles in the mundane world similar to the titles that the Lords hold in the magical one.

What I fear of, is the reaction of the non-magical government if this attack were to fall on the Queen's ears. To attack a person of such high honour would have similar effects to the minister of magic being attacked. The main difference is that we are outnumbered by the non-magicals here in Britain alone by a hefty margin, at least seven hundred to one, maybe more and they have technology that far surpasses our abilities whether they can use magic or not.

Now, back to this piece of vermin, I have thoroughly questioned this piece of filth with a truth serum and I have left you a vial containing a pensive memory of the events that I came upon and the questioning that I did afterwards. There is also a memory strand intheir that contains the attack that I came upon at the Weasleys and the aftermath that has Molly Weasley up in arms, according to this mornings paper. Keep the contents of this memory to yourself for the time being, there are changes coming to the magical world and all that I can say is I have been chosen to be a symbol that people can look up to.

Yours in regards,

The Avenging Angel

PS. Just point your wand at the Death Eater and say your daughter's name and the charms holding him in place will be released, I think people have got the picture by now.

And one other thing, be glad that I saved Lord Talbot this morning because if I hadn't come across that scene when I did, Wizarding Britain would have been at war with the goblins this morning. Lord Talbot is Chief Ragnok's counterpart in the mundane world and they are not only associates, but sworn blood brothers in business.

Amelia's complexion paled dramatically as she reread the last line several times, the implications of what this Avenging Angel had just saved them all from hitting her hard.

Once she regained her composure, she pulled out her wand and pointed it at Walden Macnair's backside and said, "Susan", in a firm voice. The sticking charm that was holding the Death Eater released its hold and the magic of the illusion was broken. Macnair slumped to the ground, still alive, but the message across his torso was plain to see:

I have killed hundreds of muggles...I am guilty.

Off to the side, Amelia saw Bozo taking pictures of the Death Eater laying on the floor. The man was still alive, she could see his chest rising and falling and there on his left arm, exposed for everyone to see, was the Dark Mark, dark and vile like it was before. This truly meant that the rumours were true, Lord Voldemort was back, which caused two more questions to come to the fore of her mind. Why was Cornelius Fudge covering up his return and why was Albus Dumbledore, the Chief Wizard silent about this matter?

HP HG HP HG

Harry, in the guise of The Avenging Angel, was disillusioned and was hovering silently above the Fountain of Magical Brethren when Amelia Bones came upon the scene. He waited until the initial shock of the scene had warn off before he had Fawkes deliver the letter to her. Satisfied with the results and glad that he had stopped a potential war, he disappeared silently, the flames disguised by a notice-me-not charm. Moments later, he reappeared in his bedroom at Number 4, Privett Drive and ten seconds later, he was back in human form and jumping into bed. He needed to get some shuteye, he had a date with Hermione at five o'clock for dinner and a movie. Five minutes later, he was out cold, dreaming of his lovely girlfriend while wizarding Britain was beginning to fall into turmoil, marked Death Eaters, muggle victims and a goblin war being avoided were the talk of the day.

HP HG HP HG

At the same time, Avada Kadavra were the last two words the Death Eater heard as his master read the morning edition, explaining how another one of his most trusted and faithful had failed him, to say that he was pissed was evident as he continued reigning down pain, torture and mutilation curses on the already dead body, there wouldn't be enough left for Nagini to eat when he was done.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: I peeked, I couldn't help it, over 20,000 hits, 116 favs, 182 alerts...but most importantly, 67 reviews, it really makes my day knowing that you are really enjoying this story, so please keep them coming and enjoy the next chapter.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Nine

Severus Tobias Dietrich Snape was having a bit of a quandary at this current point in time. On the one hand, his former master had just been resurrected, although not according to plan. The Potter boy was supposed to be the one, not the Diggory lad, Lord Voldemort had raged on for three days, after discovering that the wrong person was portkeyed into the graveyard. The ritual was successfull, there was no doubt about that, but without the Potter boy's blood, Lord Voldemort was still unable to locate him, no matter what means he used.

On the other hand, his other master, Albus Percival Wolfric Bryan Dumbledore, head of this and boss of that, had just reformed his little spy group, The Order of the Phoenix, although this time, it wasn't for information gathering purposes. This time, the Order's main priority was to guard the Potter boy and make sure that he stayed in his prison on Privett Drive. "The boy can't be allowed to learn of his destiny Severus", the headmaster had drawled on only the day after the school term had ended. "Only he has the power to kill Tom and I need him to be able to stand and fight, I need Tom weak enough so that I can swoop in at the end of the fight and down Tom forever" and the boy has to be properly wed to the Weasley girl, so that all of my plans can be fulfilled."

The quandary that he found himself in was this, he had two masters to serve, a life debt that he had incurred to his hated rival, James Potter, and the promise that he had made to the only person that he had ever loved, Lily Potter nee Evans. He had made a promise over her broken body that he would protect her son and help him bring down not only Tom Riddle, but Albus Dumbledore. It had been discovered afterwards that the prophecy that Albus was keeping secret was not the true prophecy that was recorded within the ministry.

What Albus Dumbledore never knew was that the Potters had gone to the Hall of Prophecies with their baby and had heard the prophecy directly. Unknown at the time, the true prophecy had stated that there were two dark lords that were involved. The first dark lord would mark the young boy as his equal, thereby giving him the added power to vanquish the other dark lord forever. And only Severus, Lily and James knew that Tom was the only person more powerful than Albus and that Halloween night so long ago had seen the boy marked and made equal in power to Tom. Albus didn't have enough power to finish the boy off that night, the protective shields that surrounded the boy were virtually impenetrable, so he did the only thing that he could. He bound the child's magical core that would hopefully end up with the child's defeat at the hands of Tom.

And this was the reason that Severus found himself on guard duty outside the Dursley's this Monday afternoon. Between the Daily Prophet headlines this morning and a major fiasco ath the Ministry of Magic that followed afterwards, Severus was the only Order member available to stand guard. He was brought out of his musings when the front door of the Dursley home opened and Harry Potter stepped out. Severus watched as the boy started walking towards the end of the drive when he stiffened. He watched on as Harry then proceeded to glance around, looking for something and when he passed by himself, the boy stopped and his eyes seemed to lock onto his. For a brief moment, Severus thought that he had been found out, but the boy continued searching the rest of the area.

Seeming to be satisfied about something, Severus watched as the boy relaxed and proceeded to the end of the drive, turned left on the sidewalk and started to walk down the street. As he neared his position, Severus watched as the boy stopped right beside him and turned his head and said, "I know that you're there professor Snape, can I help you?"

To say that Severus Snape was alarmed was an understatement, if he wasn't hidden under his invisibility cloak, everyone would have seen him doing his best goldfish routine, his mouth opening and closing several times while he was thinking, how did he know I was here. Using his legilimency abilities, he decided to take a peek at the boys thoughts and immediately he found himself in a dark place. He started to wander around, searching for any indications of thoughts or emotions, but he was unable to find anything. Unknown to Severus, he had collapsed to the ground under the invisibility cloak as his mind was lost in the vast expanse of Harry's mindscape.

HP HG HP HG

Harry had just left his relatives house when he felt a presence somewhere close by. Instantly he stiffened and using his gryffin abilities, he started to scan the area, being able to detect magical auras with his new eyesight abilities. As he glanced around, he came across his potions teacher, Severus Snape, hidden under an invisibility cloak. "Looks like he's on detail today", thought Harry, "Time to have a little fun".

As he glanced towards his potions teacher, he paused and looked directly into his teacher's eyes. He sensed his teacher's nervousness, so he continued scanning the yard, pretending to look for other threats. Once he had done a complete three sixty, he appeared to relax and then strode to the end of the drive, turned left and walked to the spot directly beside his potions professor. Then he stopped and turned his head, facing Severus and said, "I know that you're there professor Snape, can I help you?" To say that his teacher's reaction was comical was an understatement, he watched on as his teacher took on the visage of a goldfish and then for some reason, Severus collapsed. Harry didn't understand why, but he made sure that Severus was hidden from view, his next guard would find him later, and continued on his way down the street to the park, where he intended on disappearing from, after all, he was expected at the Grangers for dinner in five minutes.

HP HG HP HG

Albus Percival Wolfric Bryan Dumbledore had his hands full at the moment. The situation with the Weasleys was bad enough, but to have Walden Macnair exposed as the Death Eater scum that he was, didn't sit well with his plans. And who the hell was this Avenging Angel, he was pretty sure that this person or creature, whatever it was, was responsible for the attack on poor Mr. Weasley. He was going to have to find out who this Avenging Angel was and see if he could sway him to his way of thinking, and then maybe, place some controlling runes on him, and maybe modify his behaviour, and maybe use compulsion charms to do his bidding, and... He was brought out of his musings by a knocking on his door. Casting a one way mirror spell at the office door and seeing that it was professor McGonagul, he said "Come on in Minerva".

Minerva McGonagul, looking rather breathless like she had just hurried here from her office said, "Albus, we have a bit of an emergency. Severus has been attacked and no one can determine what's wrong with him".

"Is Harry safe", the question catching Minerva off guard.

"Mundungus says that the boy is still locked up in his room, why do you ask".

"Because if Severus was attacked, then it is quite possible that Harry could have been attacked and we both know how important the boy is".

"You're right as always, Albus. Anyways, Severus was just sent through the flue connection at Arabella Figg's house directly into the hospital wing. Pompey is scanning him now, but she said that she couldn't find out what was wrong with him, its like he's been kissed by a dementor and is requesting your presence".

HP HG HP HG

Severus Snape was still wandering around, no matter which direction he went, he couldn't find anything, there was no source of light, no up, no down and it didn't matter if he turned left or right, he was lost. He had never thought that a mindscape such as this could exist, let alone be created by the Potter boy. Realizing now that he was trapped here until the boy released him, he sat down and began to think about his options, its not like he was going anywhere.

Grudgingly, he finally admitted to himself that the Potter boy, no Harry was not James Potter, but a combination of both of his parents. Physically, he may resemble his father, but those eyes constantly reminded Severus of the boy's mother, his one and only friend in life and even if he hated James Potter, there was just as much of Lily within him and it was because of this thought Severus started down a new path. He would try and become friends with the boy and become a silent guardian, it would be something Lily would want him to do and it would be his own way of repaying the life debt he owed the Potter family and maybe, just maybe, earn their foregiveness for setting his old master on them in the first place, But for now all he could do, was to sit here and wait for his release from this prison.

HP HG HP HG

Albus burst through the hospital wing doors startling Madame Pomfrey momentarily. By the time she was able to admonish him for his not so discreet entrance into her domain, Albus had strode across the entire length of the medical ward within Hogwarts and was at Severus' side casting spells like a madman. When he was done casting every detection spell that he knew of, Albus turned to his medi-witch and, shaking his head slightly, said,

"I fear that your assumptions are quite correct, Madame Pomfrey, I can't detect any brain function. Its like you said, its like he's been kissed by a dementor".

Madame Pomfrey's hand rose towards her mouth, shock and grief mirrored on her face. "What should I do for him Albus?"

"The only thing that you can do madame, keep his body comfortable. If it was a dementor attack, I would have been notified long before Severus was brought here. I am positive that you or I will discover what has happened to Severus soon, and then we will be able to revive him and discover what truly happened today".

"Do you know what's wrong with Severus then," asked Madame pomfrey.

"I can tell you that he was not attacked by a dementor, because if he had been, then he would be dead by now. There is no apparent brain function, yet every other detection spell shows that he is healthy, its like his mind has been ripped from his body".

Silently, Albus mused to himself, "I wonder what Tom did to you my sneaky little pawn, did he finally break your mind and leave you on display for me to find you broken as you are. Although the boy is still safe, I can't take a chance that Tom has broken your mind and is aware of the boy's whereabouts, so I'll have to move up the boy's departure date and move him to the Weasley home before his birthday. I can't have him attacking without me present to finish the job after all."

HP HG HP HG

Helga Hufflepuff looked down upon the scene from her portrait that was displayed within the hospital wing. It portrayed a young nurse travelling from bed to bed checking on her charges and as no one ever once questioned her on her identity, she was able to hide in plain sight, keeping an eye on all of her charges. It was her and Fawkes' job to see that the school was free from any magical illnesses and to work with the current headmaster in keeping the school safe. Only three headmasters since her death, had refused the mental link that she offered them to help guide them through their tenure as headmaster. They were Eoessa Sakndenberg, Phineas Nigellus Black and Albus Percival Wolfric Bryan Dumbledore. This never boded well for the school, as the first two headmasters mentioned had been dark through and through, Eoessa Sakndenberg was even heralded as the dark lord of his time.

Phineas Nigellus Black's tenure as headmaster had seen a reformation of the Slytherin house, as many muggle born witches were raped and obliviated repeatedly, within the confines of its walls. It wasn't long after that, that Salazar Slytherin's beliefs were twisted into todays pure blood diatribe, Sal only ever wanted the first-borns taken away from their families and trained properly, many had been killed simply because they were different than those that they lived with. And Phineas' beliefs were gobbled up by the pure bloods like turkey was at Halloween, because pure bloods couldn't possibly be born as squibs, there magic had to be stolen by someone and what better group of people to blame it on then the class that had never heard of magic before, let alone wield it.

As for Albus Percival Wolfric Bryan Dumbledore, what could she say. She watched as the young, aspiring student learned and excelled at an alarming rate, there hadn't been anyone with this ability since Merlin himself. Then she heard about the death of his sister Ariana and grieved for him, but when he returned to Hogwarts to teach and then later take up the mantel as headmaster, she saw his darker persona for the first time and he had flatly refused the mental bond.

So she had watched as he slowly began disgracing her beloved school. It began by Albus firing the competant teachers and hiring incompetant ones to take their places. Then he began replacing the course material with other, useless books and hiding the knowledge from the library away in his private chambers. She watched as he warped another powerful young wizard, Tom Marvolo Riddle, and turned him into a hanous killing machine, only to watch as the power hungry apprentice almost turned the tables on his master, the master apprentice bond being the only thing to save Albus' life that night. After that, she was forced to watch Albus throw light sided families into Tom's path and wept as old families were completely wiped from existence.

And then Albus had concocted the idea of inventing that damnable prophecy and try to destroy the last of the ancient and noble houses. It was only then, that magic had spoken to the four founders and explained the future in detail and the parts that they were all to play and as Helga may not have had a mental link with the current headmaster, the empathic abilities that she had gained from her bonding to Fawkes, allowed her to read his thoughts, especially when they were rolling off of him right now with the force of a tidal wave.

Helga was going to have to relay Dumbledore's intentions for Harry and what happened to Severus to Fawkes, and hopefully, the information would be passed on to Harry, her own skills telling her that Severus was mentally trapped somewhere and not damaged goods like the headmaster thought.

Little did she know that the potions professor was locked away in her heir's mindscape at the moment and safe from any further manipulations of Albus, or the fury of Tom as Severus was unable to respond to the summons that his other master had been sending out for hours now.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Ten

Harry reappeared outside the Granger family residence, and after conjuring a bouquet of flowers for Emma and a single long-stemmed rose for Hermione, he rang their doorbell announcing his arrival. It was five o'clock, his expected arrival time, and he didn't want to make Hermione or her parents angry at him for his tardiness. Moments later, Dan Granger, a relatively tall man of six feet four inches, answered the door and said "Come on in Harry, Hermione is just upstairs putting the final touches on her appearance".

As Harry walked into the entrance hall of the Granger home, he glanced around the vastly becoming familiar site. The foyer was about twenty-five feet wide and extended back as far as the second floor landing. A hallway, accesible from either side of the grand stairway, led deeper into the house where the kitchens were located. A doorway off to the left led to the Granger family library and although only twenty feet wide, it ran the entire length of the house, a whole seventy-five feet. There was an upper entrance as well, from the second floor that gave everyone easier access to the books that were contained on the upper shelves. The doorway that was off to the right led to the diningrooms, one formal and a smaller, informal one. Most of the meals were had in the smaller one, formal dinners and the like was the only reason that the larger room would be used.

Harry also knew that the entrance to the Granger recreation and entertainment rooms could be found behind the grand staircase that led up to the master bedroom, Hermione's bedroom and the two guest bedrooms. Hermione's bedroom had an ensuite and he was pretty sure that the master bedroom had one as well. There was another bathroom on the second floor, complete with a shower stall, a bathtub for those that wanted a soak, a toilet and a double sink vanity with a mirror that covered the entire length of the vanity. It was located between the two guest rooms and could be accessed from either bedroom as well as the hallway. There were two other bathrooms in the house, one on the main level and one down off of the recreation room, but they only provided a sink and a toilet for convenience purposes. The recreation and entertainment rooms were down in the basement and besides the bathroom, there was the rec room that housed all of the electronics for the entertainment center and the other room which contained the pool table and Hermione's two favourite arcade games, Pac-Man and Q-Bert.

Harry reflected on how much his life had changed over the past two weeks, from the encounter with the gryffin to the most recent episode with his potions professor. He had to admit to himself that he was most definitely not the same person now as the scared little boy that had first laid eyes on the Triwizard Cup two weeks ago. No no, he was becoming a very knowledgeable man that was driven to succeed on the path that had been set out in front of him and he realized that he wanted Hermione to be a permanent figure at his side. Rowena had explained how marriage worked in the magical world and after going over the magical contracts book with fervor, Harry knew that he would have to eventually enter into negotiations with Hermione's father when he could finally muster up enough courage to ask, but that was a future event, they had only been dating for a little over a week now.

He was so lost in thought that he didn't see Hermione as she appeared at the top of the stairs and began to come down. If he had been paying attention, his mouth surely would have went dry at the sight. Hermione was dressed in a pair of black jeans that clung to her petite frame as though they had been painted on. She wore a white blouse and had a pale blue cardigan covering her shoulders, the sleeves of the sweater tied into a knot that rested above her waist. Her hair was done up in such a way as to frame her elegant looking face, all signs of the untameable mass gone and to accentuate the vision of beauty, a necklace with a heart shaped locket was resting just above her breasts, drawing any hormonal driven male's focus to that region. In other words, Hermione was a picture of perfection and when Harry finally noticed her about halfway down the stairs, he instantly took on his potions professor goldfish imitation. His mouth opened, closed, opened and closed once more. His mind was having a hard time coming up with words to describe the vision of beauty that his girlfriend was currently creating.

He was brought out of his stupor when he realized that a certain amount of blood had made its way south and an increasing pressure in his pants started to reflect just what kind of effect that this goddess was having on him. To avoid any embarrassment, he willed a notice-me-not charm into existence covering the fast becoming pressure related problem. Finally, he was able to force out, "Hermione, you look wonderful, you've taken my breath away and I think I need a minute to catch up with it and bring it back."

The laugh that eminated from Hermione's lips at that statement/compliment had Harry beside himself, it was the most wonderful sound that he had ever heard and new instantly that he could grow to love hearing that sound each and every day of his life.

As Hermione came off of the last step, she descended on Harry like a missile, her lips crashing into his as she expressed to him in a way that words never could, the effects that his compliment had had on her. When she finally broke away from the kiss, she stared into Harry's eyes for a moment or two, hidden desires bubbling forth from her thoughts and then she said, "Come on, mom and dad are already in the diningroom waiting for us." Harry could only follow along as Hermione grabbed his hand and headed towards the diningroom, the emotions that he had felt coming from his girlfriend making his blood boil and awakening his own hidden desires that he had for his girlfriend in return.

HP HG HP HG

As the couple were walking back through the neighbourhood after watching the new film, "First Knight", Hermione snuggled into Harry just a little closer and said, "Harry, I want to thank-you for a wonderful time tonight. I think that you literally charmed my parents to death tonight at dinner. If I didn't know any better, I swear that they're ready to marry me off to you".

The comment caught Harry off guard for a second or two. Then his thoughts began racing around in his mind. Do they really? Would Hermione be opposed to the thought of marrying me? Why does this seem to be happening so fast? Why am I not scared at the thought of marrying my best friend tomorrow, if it was possible? He was brought out of his musings by a voice in his head again.

"Its all part of a soul bond that is forming between you and Hermione", said Godric. "It was initiated with your first kiss and is progressing at an alarming rate. Your magics are so compatible, that they are flowing together like two meandering streams that meet up and become a mighty river".

"Oh," replied Harry.

"And since magic is involved, it is doing its damnest to protect you and your life mate from any outside interference". It is propelling the two of you together so that you can complete the bond as quickly as possible".

"And how exactly do we complete this bond?" questioned Harry.

"By consumating your relationship".

"You mean, like having sex with Hermione", said Harry.

"Exactly".

"Is Hermione experiencing similar feelings too?"

"I think that your newly found abilities can give you the answer to that, but Rowena says that she has had several conversations with her over the past three days on the subject. You don't think that she is glowing because of her lack of interest, do you!"

"Now, you two kids have fun and don't worry too much, magic will direct you where she wants you to go", and then Godric's voice went silent once more.

Harry's focus returned to his lovely girlfriend then and he asked, "Hermione, why do you think that your parents are ready to marry you off to me?"

"Simple, they have read every letter that I have ever sent home while I was in school and they're all filled with you as the main topic and tonight, they seen first hand just how much I am in love with you. On top of that, Rowena and I have been talking about our growing soul bond and what we are experiencing is purely natural. The quickness of our bond though, can be attributed to the vast amount of power that both you and I possess. Rowena discovered that somehow, my magical core had been bound too, and that our first kiss last week started to weaken the bond and that my physical desire for you would increase until we end up making love for the first time. She also said that intimate contact would help weahen the bindings on my magical core."

"You knew about the soul bond between us and, who in their right mind would dare to bind your magical core?"

"Rowena and I have been talking about this for a few days now, I've been having these urges and I couldn't exactly go to my parents and ask them about something magical could I?"

"Um, no I guess you really couldn't talk to them about this", said Harry.

And Rowena also told me that Helga Hufflepuff said that the headmaster bound my magical core while I was petrified during my second year, citing some tripe about unstable core and petrification not being a good mix. Unfortunately, my core was never unbound once I was back to normal and Rowena and I both figure that he seen my magical potential and my closeness to you would interfere too much with his plans. I am inclined to agree as I feel a torrent of power now coursing through my body andI am beginning to feel your magic intertwined with mine. It makes me want to become one with you all the time now, does that make any kind of sense to you?"

They noticed that they had stopped walking and that they were by the same place where they had had their first serious kiss the night before, before Walden Macnair had thrown some water on the smoldering fire that was sure to erupt into something much, much more.

"Shall we continue from where we were so rudely interupted last night, then?" purred Hermione.

"Absolutely, my lady", Harry said as he put his one hand on the small of her back and pulled her close to his body while his other hand pulled her head in for a kiss. The moment their lips touched, it elicited a groan from Hermione that Harry had never heard before, but it did have one side effect. It drove his brain into a lust addled frenzy and soon his hands were beginning to roam all over her body, from the soft locks of her hair to her shoulders and on down past the small of her back, past the slight swelling of her hips until he grasped her tiny, but firm buns in his hands and squeezed.

This in turn, illicited a response from Hermione and soon she was pushing Harry back far enough so that she could get at the buttons on his dress shirt and started unbuttoning them, her lips travelling across his jaw to his ear and then proceeded to travel down his neck and onto his muscular chest.

Somewhere in the excitement, Hermione had managed a wandless and soundless conjuring because moments later, she hooked her one leg behind Harry's and pushed him backwards. He landed on the conjured blanket and proceeded to pull her down on top of him, neither paying attention to the magic that Hermione had just performed.

Their lips found each other's once more and soon both teenagers were illiciting groans of pleasure as their hips ground together, Harry's erection nearing that bursting point at lightning speed, the warmth of a pending explosion building in his nether region.

Hermione wasn't fairing much better, she was enjoying Harry's erection as it was stimulating her little nub in all the right ways and soon she found herself on the edge of her first ever orgasm that wasn't self induced.

Suddenly, both teenagers hit their peak at the same time, both uttering each other's name preceeded by an Oh. Their mutual orgasms were immediately followed by a powerful burst of magic as Hermione's magical core was released from its bindings and combined with Harry's excess magical outpouring, a magical shockwave was emitted from the two of them, the power of the love that they felt for each other fueling the wave.

Unknown to anyone, all forms of magical and mundane birth control methods were rendered useless at that moment over a five hundred mile radius from the heavily panting couple. There would be many shocked couples come the morning when they found out that they were expecting. Magical sensors within the ministry of magic that was generally used to track accidental magical outbursts and help locate new muggle-born witches and wizards were going crazy as the shockwave of power was felt across the entirety of Britain, the phenomenon sending every magical scholar to their tomes of knowledge to record and reference the event.

"That was amazing Mione", thought Harry.

"I totally agree", said Hermione.

"What do you totally agree to?" asked Harry.

"You said that that was amazing and I totally agree", replied Hermione.

"What, you heard that", said Harry.

"Heard what, Harry?"

"I didn't say that outloud, I was only thinking it", said Harry.

"OH...Well Rowena did tell me that there would be secrets that would reveal themselves to us as our bond grows in strength" and I for one, look forward to making this bond grow even more, especially if you can make me feel like that all the time. It truly was an amazing feeling, but I think that we should get up now, my parents may be worrying a little as it is rather late. Maybe we can do something like this once or twice more before my parents and I leave for France on Saturday".

"Sounds like a plan to me", said Harry, "As long as life doesn't throw any more curveballs at me".

"That's true", Hermione said as she finished straightening her blouse and cardigan., "It tends to do that a lot", a hint of laughter in her voice as she placed her hands around his neck. "I think its time that you take me home, my angel", and leaned in to give him another kiss.

Moments later, they appeared in the foyer at the Granger residence, their lips stilled glued together in a passionate kiss, their futures of no concern at the moment. That is until Emma Granger's voice broke the silence when she asked, "Did you two have a good time?"

Blushing violently, Harry and Hermione pulled apart, guilty looks on full display across their faces, their hands still entwined.

"Um, yes we did", said an embarrassed Hermione. "I think that you and dad would enjoy it just as much as we did"

"Are we talking about the movie or something else", teased Emma.

"What do you mean", asked a shocked Hermione.

"Well, either you two had a run in with a vampire or, let's just say that the evidence on both of your necks says otherwise".

Both teenagers stepped back and looked at each other and to their horror, they both viewed the results of their very recent escapades. Immediately Hermione buried her head back into Harry's chest while he tried to stammer out an apology for their previous engagement. After a couple of tortuous minutes for the kids, Emma finally spoke up,

"Your father and I have been doing a little reading". She proceeded to hold up a book labelled 'Soul Bonds'. "This little book magically appeared on my night table three nights ago, explaining what was going on and to read it thoroughly before jumping to any conclusions. Dan and I only have one thing to say, we are both very, very..."

The looks of fear on the children's faces was enough to send Emma into a fit of giggles, which caused Dan to come running up from the rec room to see what was going on. When the giggle fit had subsided, Emma continued, "We are both very jealous of what the two of you have between you. It took your father and I years to get to where we are in our relationship and according to this book, we will never even come close to experiencing what the two of you probably already have. You two must be very special"

"And important", added Dan.

"For God, magic, whatever powers are out there to bless the two of you in such a rare and wonderous way", finished Emma.

"So are you trying to tell us that you understand that magic is propelling the two of us together and that this bond that we now share will only be complete once we", at this Harry paused and looked at the love of his life, Hermione looked a little apprehensive, but sent him a mental "OK" and Harry continued, "Have sex and you're OK with this".

"Dan and I were roughly the same age as the two of you when we each gave our virginity to each other and it would be rather hipocritical of us to say no, especially knowing the blessing that the two of you have with your bond", said Emma.

"And besides", said Dan, "After hearing how many times you have saved our daughter's life and the love that she expressed for you through her letters have truly convinced Emma and I that its the right thing to do".

Harry and Hermione spent the next few minutes shaking hands, hugging and expressing their thanks to Dan and Emma for their understanding and then Harry put his hands around Hermione's waist, mentally conveyed his plans to her, and then addressed Hermione's parents.

"If you truly understand what's happening between us, then you'll understand what we're about to do", and in a burst of flame, Harry and Hermione disappeared, their destination, Gryffindor's private chambers at Hogwarts.

After the kids departure, Dan and Emma grasped each other's hands and headed for their own bed, the visit from Godric and Rowena had most definitely put their fears to rest and they were both truly happy for their kids.

HP HG HP HG

If the shockwave that emitted from Harry and Hermione four hours earlier was being hailed as an unknown phenomenon between the magical world's scholars, then the one that emitted from Hogwarts castle just a few moments ago was going to be hailed as a miracle. It was a thousand times more powerful as the effects of the magical surge was felt around the entire world. But the most amazing aspect of their soul bond completion was the glow that began eminating from their entwining magical cores.

It began as nothing more than a spark between the two of them that grew in intensity until Hogwarts couldn't contain anymore of the excess magic that was rolling off of the couple and the castle itself started to glow. The intensity of the glow made the entire surrounding area light up like the brightest of summer days and as the bond reached its completion, the brilliant golden light that accompanied the magical surge was seen around the world and for a brief second, the entire planet was enveloped in the magical glow. The after effects of the magical surge would be felt in both the magical and mundane worlds as all magical maladies at that exact moment were healed and certain mundane diseases were eradicated from existence.

At St. Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladies and Treatments, every patient in the long-term spell damage ward were all instantly healed, except for one, Gilderoy Lockhart's memories were completely lost as there was nothing hidden inside his head that was retrievable. The two longest long-term residents, Frank and Alice Longbottom were cured though, the effects of the overexposure to the cruciatus curse were repaired and they were both able to think competantly for the first time in almost fourteen years.

But to the couple that had just completed the bond, it didn't matter as both of them were passed out from magical exhaustion, their magical cores nearly drained from the amount of healing energy that they had expended. Silently, four familiars sat , or perched around the bed, using their own unique abilities to aid in their masters' recoveries, Hermione being granted the same gifts as Harry except one, Sasha was no longer alive to grant them to her and when they woke, Godric would be the first to tell them the good news.

Down in the headmaster's office, several little silver trinkets that were attuned to Harry James Potter's and Hermione Jane Granger's magical essences simply stopped working, as they were no longer traceable, one of many side effects of their fledgling soul bond.

The entire world was going to wake to an already better place, palliative people would only be the touch of the iceburg though, there were many, many more changes that hadn't been discovered, or exposed, yet.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: Mental conversations will be _italicized_.

Thanks to all who have read and reviewed.

Thanks once more to kissinghollie for betaing this chapter and to lordblink for his warped mind.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by DnG

Chapter Eleven

Tuesday mornings Daily Prophet had Britain's floo network experiencing near overload, and owls flying back and forth over the entire country. The fact that an active Death Eater had been captured was glorious news to the majority of the wizarding population, but the slant by ministry spokeswoman, Dolores Umbridge citing the creature as a menace to society and the possible new dark lord that wouldn't die away, had the pure blood population in an uproar.

"How dare this thing attack a respected member of society like that," one anonymous pure blood wife had said.

"The aurors need to track this monster down and destroy it," was another common cry from the pure blood citizens.

As Harry and Hermione read the morning copy of the Daily Prophet that Hedwig had just delivered, both newly married lovers looked at each other and using their mental link, began conversing back and forth while they scanned the story.

_"I can't believe that there's no mention of the war that I averted, what a bunch of incompetent idiots,"_ commented Harry.

_"Can you believe this, not one response from a muggle-born or half-blood in the entire story,"_ said Hermione.

_"I know what you mean 'Mione, I think that I should schedule a visit to our little beetle bug, she definitely won't be expecting a visit from The Avenging Angel, and if I hit her with my little stinger, she'll be warring with herself every step of the way as she won't be able to write anymore lies."_

_"You know something, love, maybe you should provide her with a pensive memory of the attack so that she can view what Macnair did first hand and once she sees the truth from an unbiased point of view, maybe she won't be able to deny the truth and since this serum forces people into telling the truth and not letting them lie when faced with the task of writing it, hopefully her stories will come across as truthful and unbiased for once."_

_"Or I could filter through her memories and expose each and every little deed that she has done over her life and hand her over to Amelia Bones and let her squash the bug. Come to think of it, I think that I should schedule a visit with Amelia , let her see first hand who I am and let her see first hand what the Avenging Angel looks like, she seems to be a decent person and I didn't feel any taint coming from her yesterday morning, although, the ministry reeked of it and was making me feel really nauseous before I left."_

_"Her niece, Susan, speaks highly of her too."_

_"You mean the slender redhead with the big...from Hufflepuff,"_ asked Harry.

_"The one and only,"_ harrumphed Hermione.

_"Sorry love, yours are just perfect to me, I could show you again just how perfect they really are,"_ said Harry as he waggled his eyebrows towards his wife.

Looking up from the paper, Hermione glanced at Harry only to see him waggling his eyebrows at her and she smacked his shoulder while saying out loud, "Prat. I'd love to, but after last night and all, I am a little tender still and besides, you have to still make an appearance at Gringotts to claim your inheritances like Rowena told you too, and then you have to meet up with Neville and hopefully Daphne to try and see if they will side with you. Plus you're going to need to track down Sirius and tell him everything, I've got a bad feeling that Dumbledore has bad intentions towards your Godfather. The sooner you take up your head of house role, the sooner you will be able to free your Godfather."

Harry reached over and pulled Hermione into his lap, his hands emitting their pale glow as his healing abilities eased his girlfriend's discomfort. Then he kissed her lightly on her lips pouring his love and affection that he felt for her into the kiss. When they separated thirty seconds later, Hermione had a dopey look on her face and Harry asked, "Feel better."

"Um, yeah," was the reply as Hermione was still slightly dazed.

"You're right, there's a lot that I have to do, and come to think of it, we also need to look for Godric's portrait, we have to wake him up too."

Hermione still seemed lost, so Harry snapped his fingers in front of her face a couple of times trying to get her attention. When some sense of awareness returned to her eyes, Harry restated, "I said 'You're right, there's a lot that I have to do, and come to think of it, we also need to look for Godric's portrait, we have to wake him up too.'."

"I love kissing you," was the reply.

"Come on Hermione, it was only moments ago that you were telling me that we had things to do and that we really couldn't be doing this again."

"I know silly, I was just saying that you were a really good kisser and that I love kissing you," and with one quick motion, she had leaned in, placed one more kiss on his lips, jumped off of his lap, started walking towards their new bedroom and with her hips swaying with a slight seductiveness to them, she looked over her shoulder and said, "We need to have a shower and get dressed."

HP HG HP HG

Thirty minutes later, a thoroughly satiated couple emerged from their bedroom in search of Godric's portrait. They didn't have to look far or wide, but rather up. As they had appeared directly in the master bedroom the night before, they hadn't checked the layout of Godric's private chambers yet, so after discovering that there were three other bedrooms within the suite, each with their own bathrooms attached, a breakfast nook where they had found the morning paper, a slightly smaller version of the Gryffindor common room, they found a smaller sitting room, with a view overlooking the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest. It was here that they found Godric's larger than life portrait hanging above a fireplace.

Upon seeing Godric's portrait, Harry reached up with his hand, as he had been directed to do by Godric earlier, and placed his hand on the activation rune on the bottom left corner and let some of his magic flow into it. Within moments, Godric could be seen stretching in his portrait and waking up for the first time in nearly eight hundred years. "Its good to see you," the portrait started until he took a closer look at the couple standing in front of his picture and continued, "Oh my, I can tell that the two of you are going to be a force to be reckoned with, the glow that your magical auras are giving off is almost blinding."

The now blushing couple replied with a curt, thank you, in unison.

"Hermione, I have some good news to pass on to you. Magic has decided that Harry is going to need you at his side for morale support and to help him keep his sanity as he takes up his mantel as Vigilante."

"Really?" said a surprised Hermione.

"Yes, last night while the two of you were recuperating from your, er, um, 'fulfillment', each of Harry's familiars bonded with you and gave you some of their essences as well, well Hedwig, Fawkes and Sonya did anyways. You now have the same abilities as Harry, except the abilities that Sasha had passed on, and you will be able to transform as well."

A squealing Hermione jumped around in complete happiness for a couple of minutes before she calmed down enough and said, "Thanks Godric," and promptly jumped into her husband's arms and started kissing him again for all she was worth.

HP HG HP HG

While Godric spent the next two hours going over Hermione's new role, Harry returned to Privet Drive, dispelling the illusion charm on his room as he reappeared in it, before making his way downstairs to the kitchen to greet his aunt and uncle and check on their healing progress. After having morning tea, which Vernon had to refuse, he needed to head into work, Harry sat and talked to his Aunt Petunia for the first time in his life.

It turned out that Dudley was out with his friends and both Vernon and Petunia had decided to move Harry into the guest bedroom, it was much larger and a lot nicer then the cupboard under the stairs, or the storage room that he currently resided in now. After politely declining, Harry had gone to explain that an ancestor on his father's side had left him access to his own flat, complete with a master bedroom and three guest rooms and that he would be moving in immediately, but had to cast an illusion on the house to project an image that he still lived there. He felt his aunt's anxiety at this news and quickly reassured her that he would come around and visit and that he would bring Hermione with him. He also told her that they would make arrangements in the future for them to visit him at his new dwelling, while smirking internally, knowing full well of his aunt's and uncle's desires to visit Hogwarts. It had been part of the memories that Albus Dumbledore had sequestered and hidden away in their minds.

After their tea was finished, Harry gave his aunt a hug, which she returned and then headed out to the park to find his cousin and check out if he had helped him at all. As he walked out of the house, he paused on the doorstep and stretched. Using this as a distraction, Harry used his heightened magical senses and eyesight to scan the area. He found out that the days guard was none other than Alistair 'Mad Eye' Moody, the famous auror that had spent the entire school year tied up in a trunk while a Death Eater had assumed his role with the aid of polyjuice potion.

Deciding to have a little fun, Harry stepped off of the doorstep and started to walk across the lawn in Mad Eye's direction. As he passed the venerable old auror, Harry barked out 'Constant Vigilance' at the top of his lungs, as he passed by the otherwise hidden guard. To say Mad Eye's response was comical was an understatement. Although Mad Eye's magical eye was following Harry's progress the entire time, the bark of 'Constant Vigilance' from right beside him caused the old auror to jump off of his wooden leg and to shoot off a stunner. Unfortunately for Mad Eye, his wand was pointed at his own foot when the spell shot out of his wand and struck him in the foot and since Mad Eye always stunned first and asked questions later, his stunner was sufficient enough in power to knock himself out, providing Harry with another opportunity to leave his aunt's and uncle's residence, unobserved.

With the guard temporarily out of action, Harry then turned and focused his growing magic upon the house. He concentrated hard on what he wanted to happen, the whole time his magic was building up within his body, and when he was done, a burst of magic poured forth from his outstretched hands, completely enveloping the house. Satisfied with the results, Harry headed towards the park. As he was now 'untraceable', any magical being who came around would see Harry carrying on like any other previous summer. However, the intent field that projected out fifteen feet from the house, would signal Harry if someone was there to visit with him, allowing him to quickly return to his bedroom so as to keep up the mirage.

When he finally made it to the park five minutes later, he observed his cousin and the rest of his gang actually sitting around some of the tables, talking. This was surprising to Harry because they were usually breaking things, or carving up the tables with their pocket knives and to Harry's utter amazement, Dudley was over at the swings pushing a pretty girl back and forth. Smiling to himself, Harry knew that his cousin was going to be OK, it would just take time and with that, Harry walked on past the park until he came to the little shopping plaza located near the park. Slipping into the side alley, where no one could see him, Harry disappeared heading back to Hogwarts and his new bride.

HP HG HP HG

The Cosmo Girl 666 was a nightclub and used to be one of the more upstanding establishments within the magical district of London. Located at the end of Diagon Alley and the beginning of Knockturn Alley, it had allowed many generations of witches and wizards to enjoy the wizarding nightlife. The Singing Sorceress, Celestina Warbeck was a well known singer who had once graced its walls and performed nightly, but the rise of Lord Voldemort in the sixties had seen increased dark activity within the alleys and she had finally taken her act on the road after an all out Death Eater attack, an attack that seen the partial destruction of the Cosmo Girl 666 club.

After that attack, the club never found its former glory, slipping into obscurity. It did however, become the new unofficial hangout for the Death Eaters during the first wizarding war and beyond. It was here that the likes of Lucius Malfoy and his wife Narcissa frequented, spreading their brand of hate to anyone that would listen. The likes of Cornelius Fudge and his under secretary, Dolores Umbridge could be observed, on an almost daily basis, taking their lunch at the club, the pub fare available all day long. Other notables like Augustus Rookwood, Peter Jugson, Jules Mulcevar and Peter Travers were regulars as well. Anyone with a seedy past could be found here, eventually, including one Peter Pettigrew.

Sporting a brand new silver hand, thanks to his master, the former best friend of the Marauders could be found coming and going from the establishment, if one were able to observe him, several times a day. The club contained the only floo connection that wasn't hidden behind wards of any kind that provided a direct connection to his master's hiding place. The only protection for this connection was that it could only be activated by a person bearing the dark mark, and then only a select few of Voldemort's followers knew of it.

Peter was one such person and with his rat animagus form, he would come and go, several times a day, reporting any new information back to his master. And today was no different as the rat scurried along Knockturn Alley on his way to Borgin and Burkes. He required a talisman that was at the shop that would mask his magical presence and hide him from the wards of Hogwarts. Lord Voldemort had given Peter the job of finding out why Severus Snape wasn't responding to his summonings and once he had the talisman, he was to travel to Hogwarts and discover all that he could.

Ten minutes later, the rat-faced man appeared in a back alley in Hogsmead, the talisman around his neck. Changing back into his rat form, the Death Eater made his way around the corner, and finding the desired hole in the foundation, made his way into the cellar of Honeydukes and the entrance to the underground passage that led to Hogwarts. As the rat scurried along the tunnel, he was planning his route to find Severus. He hated the man with a passion, always degrading him when given the chance, however it was never in front of anyone, but he often asked why he had become the spineless coward that he was now. Peter had to admit to himself that the only real reason that he was like this was because of two different emotions; jealousy and hatred.

He was jealous of James and Sirius and the ritual of bond of brotherhood that the two had undertaking during their first year and had not asked him to join. He was jealous of the fact that Remus Lupin was a dark creature and that James and Sirius treated him better than they did him. He was jealous of the animagus forms of James, Sirius and Lily, three powerful creatures, a stag, a grim and a white Bengal tiger while he was a rat, a dirty, little fat rat. The mere fact that the animagus was but a reflection of his true character never crossed his mind.

As he finally made it inside the castle, he scampered through a hole in the wall at the end of the slide that led up to the one-eyed witch. He had discovered the hole during his seventh year and it led directly into the dungeons, inside Severus Snape's chambers. Not finding the potions master anywhere within his chambers or his potions labs, Peter made his way towards the Great Hall where lunch would be starting. If Severus wasn't there, maybe he could learn where he was. As it was, as he scurried into the Great Hall, he listened to the conversation between Madam Pomfrey and Albus Dumbledore.

"Albus, have you discovered anything about Severus' plight?"

"No Poppy, I do suspect that Lord Voldemort has something to do with this though."

Hearing enough, the rat scurried back out of the Great Hall and after navigating several little rat-sized passages, he emerged outside the hospital wing and made his way into the medical ward. He made his way over to the only occupied bed and once he was sure that he was alone, transformed back into his human form. As soon as Peter Pettigrew was able, he made his way over to check on the potions master, while another person observed his actions.

Scanning through her memories, Helga Hufflepuff immediately recognized who the person was and went over to the now awake patient in her picture's medical ward.

"Godric, you need to get in touch with Harry and tell him that his parent's betrayer is here in the hospital wing as we speak. I can seal off the medical wing temporarily, but not for too long, Poppy is due back from lunch in about twenty minutes or so," said an anxious Helga.

"I can do better than that, he's talking with me right now in my private suite. He'll be there shortly."

HP HG HP HG

Harry and Hermione were discussing the effects that Crookshanks would have on her new abilities with Godric when they noticed that Godric's eyes suddenly went blank. Moments later, the focus returned and he said, "Peter Pettigrew is in the infirmary as we speak. The wing has been sealed so that he can't escape and I am going to make sure that no one can leave the Great Hall while you go and capture our family's betrayer."

Instantly, there was a seven foot tall man-griffin where Harry Potter was a heartbeat earlier and only seconds later, a smaller and most definitely, female version was standing where Hermione had been. Making themselves go invisible, the two angels of fury departed in a burst of flame only to reappear in the infirmary inside the main doors. Both of the creatures seen the betrayer leaning over Severus Snape, poking and prodding the unconscious man with his wand. With the speed and agility of a cat, both creatures closed in on the unsuspecting enemy.

As Peter finished checking out Severus, he felt something wrap around his neck and his head was forcefully turned until he was staring into a pair of golden orbs. Fear started coursing through his body at that exact moment and he tried to revert back into his animal form, only to find out that he couldn't, he couldn't move, he couldn't speak and very quickly, he found out that he couldn't even stay awake as he blacked out.

With their prey captured, the larger of the two creatures picked up the now unconscious rat-faced man and a second later, they disappeared only to reappear in front of Godric's portrait once more. The smaller creature sensing its mates distress, transformed back almost immediately and then Hermione placed her hand on her lover's arm and said, "Harry, you need to calm down, he's not going to get away this time and we have all the time in the world to extract the needed information that we can, which could be fun," a look of loathing crossing her face as she looked at the man that was responsible for so much pain and suffering to the man that she loved so much.

The remaining angel set the unconscious man down on the floor, and as an afterthought, its tale appeared and swung around, hitting the afore mentioned man in the thigh, before the tail once more disappeared. Moments later, Harry Potter was standing there, his emerald green eyes glowing and pulsing with power, rage at his parent's betrayer most evident as the magic that was pouring off of the young man soon had many items within the private chambers swirling around in a vortex.

HP HG HP HG


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: Mental conversations will be _italicized_.

Special thanks to kissinghollie for betaing my story.

Another note of thanks to lordblink for helping me develop my own crazy ideas into something readable.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by DnG

Chapter Twelve

Bill Weasley was the oldest of the Weasley children and was therefore the first to move out of the Burrow, as quickly as was wizardly possible after his graduation. The charms professor, Filius Flitwick had seen the potential that the current curse breaker had shown during his Hogwarts years and had quietly contacted his cousin, Ragnok, the director of Gringotts and the current clan chief of the goblins of all twelve tribes scattered around the world. Bill had been given a job by Gringotts before he sat for his Nearly Exhausting Wizarding Tests or NEWTs for short and only sent his parents an owl before he left for Egypt, his job placement was scheduled to start the next morning after graduation.

The main reason that Bill took the job was because of the distance that it put between him and his mother. His mother expected each and everyone of her children to grow up and work for the ministry of magic, just like their father and their uncles and aunts before them. It didn't matter that Bill's potential job would make him more money in two years, then his father would at the ministry of magic if he worked there for his entire life.

The other reason that he quickly left England was because, although he was considered an adult now, for almost a full year, his mother still treated him, and all of his siblings, like they were all still in nappies. Bill wasn't even allowed to go over to a friends house during the summer holidays unless his mother accompanied him. She was the worst kind of control freak, and it more than bordered on mental abuse. Bill couldn't get out fast enough, and his younger brother, Charlie, followed a scant two years later, as he too applied for a job outside of England and again, it was on a teacher's recommendation. This time it was Silvanus Kettleburn, the Care of Magical Creatures professor, that stepped forward on the young Weasley's behalf.

Bill had decided to stay on in England after the Tri-Wizard Tournament because a certain Tri-Wizard champion had caught his eye. The gorgeous silvery-blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes had captured his heart and he had been trying to pursue her for the past two weeks. She had taken on a position at Gringotts, to learn finances and to learn better English. Apparently, she port-keyed into Gringotts every morning and left the same way every night. He still didn't know where she lived and she really didn't give him the time of day, so here he sat on guard duty running through multiple scenarios on how to capture the young Veela's heart.

He also pondered his youngest brother's latest predicament, the bloody fool had tried to rape one of his supposed best friends, Miss Hermione Granger and all out of jealousy because she paid more attention to his supposed other best friend, the Boy-Who-Lived, Harry James Potter, his current charge until six pm when auror Tonks was to relieve him.

As he was a curse breaker, he was more aware of his surroundings and instead of depending on the wards that he could sense around the place, Bill also placed some rune stones of his own around him in a circle with a ten foot diameter. This way, no one could sneak up on him and attack him like Severus Snape had been, or be stunned like Mad Eye was. Little did he know that each person was the master of their own folly and the 'honorable' headmaster, the leader of the Order of the Phoenix never passed on any vital information that might just make someone's life a little bit easier.

So, Bill sat around on the brick wall that served as a backdrop for one of the countless flower beds that covered the property., the same one that his head of house had sat on almost fourteen years ago when Harry was first brought to the Dursleys. With the Veela girl on his mind, his brother's predicament and his mother demanding satisfaction for the harm inflicted on her son, his mind was in an uproar to say the least and then as if things couldn't get any worse for him, Bill overheard a conversation very early on this morning between his mother, the headmaster and his two youngest siblings, Ron and Ginny. They all planned on dosing Harry and Hermione with love potions keyed to the youngest Weasley's and that Harry was supposed to die in some kind of duel with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Ginny was supposed to be pregnant before this final battle and was supposed to inherit all of the Potter fortune. Ron was supposed to get his portion and the remainder was to be split between Albus and Molly, apparently, his father wasn't privy to this treachery, which made Bill feel somewhat comforted because if the truth ever came out, his father would be within his full rights as the current Head of House Weasley and he could disown his wife and the two younger Weasley's, forcing the Prewitt family to take on the blame and keep House Weasley out of trouble.

He had been here since six o'clock this morning when he replaced Mundungus Fletcher as the boy's sentinel. The funny thing was that ol' Dung wasn't here this morning, and if rumors were true, he rarely ever was, his thriving thievery business was much more important then babysitting ever thought of being. Bill had decided to approach the boy this morning and tell him what he had overheard early this morning, or late last night, depending on how you want to look at things and to let him know that not all of the Weasley's were privy to this little plot against him.

He had been waiting for nearly two hours when the front door of the house opened and Harry's uncle, at least that was what information he had been given said it was, exited the house on his way to work. The fairly obese man got into his car, backed out of the driveway and sped off down the street, destination unknown to Bill. After the car turned the corner at the end of the street and a further ten minutes had passed, Bill was sure that the uncle would not return and decided to approach the house, determined to talk to the boy as soon as possible.

As he approached the house, he never even noticed the ward that Harry had erected, telling him of any visitor that wanted to talk to him.

HP HG HP HG

Harry was enjoying laying in bed watching his beautiful bride while she slept. She looked so peaceful and knew that for the first time in his life, he was slowly regaining control of his life. The fact that he was married had a lot to do with it, but he still had a long way to go. He still hadn't visited with Neville, the shy Gryffindor that had silently supported him in his second year when everyone thought he was the Heir of Slytherin. Funny that was, especially now that he was actually the heir of Slytherin, and he had also stood behind Harry after his name came out of the Goblet of Fire, only one of two people that Harry knew of that supported him. The other person was Hermione of course.

The other family that he had to make contact with was the Greengrass family and Harry had no idea whatsoever on how to do this. He knew that Daphne was in Slytherin house here at the school, but he couldn't tell you if her family was considered light, dark or neutral. She apparently had a younger sister that was two years behind, Astoria or something like that, that was in Slytherin house as well. "Maybe I might learn something about them if I visit Gringotts first," Harry mused to himself as he watched Hermione's chest slowly rise and fall as she breathed in and out.

Plans to meet Amelia Bones would come after Peter was handed over to the aurors after a public demonstration, which caused his mind to drift back to yesterday and the capture of his parents betrayer. Godric, Rowena, Hermione and himself had talked well into the night on how to punish the rat. It was finally decided to use an ancient form of runic magic that would force Peter into reliving the horror of the crimes of all of the people that he had harmed or killed throughout his life.

The Runes would force the person that was marked into a kind of living nightmare. It would literally force the person into confronting every victim that said individual had ever caused any harm to. Only once the person had admitted to all of the crimes and showed true remorse for his actions, would he be allowed to beg for forgiveness. The one problem for this type of magic was that all of the victims were supposed to be alive and it was not intended to be used on murderers as it would cause the person to eventually lose their grip on reality and slip into a permanent form of catatonia, a fitting punishment for Peter Harry thought, especially after all of the lives he has damaged by his betrayals.

Harry was jolted out of his revery of last night's conversation when his little ward at Privet Drive sent him a message that someone was approaching the house and desperately wanted to talk to him. Immediately he leaned over and placed a kiss on Hermione's forehead and quietly rolled out of bed, so as to not wake his wife up, she was just so damned innocent and pretty laying there. Moments later, He quickly donned his t-shirt and jogging pants, slipped on his old shoes and mentally added a shopping trip for clothes to his agenda before he reappeared silently in the hallway outside the kitchen at Number 4 Privet Drive.

As he reappeared in the hallway, he heard his aunt in the kitchen, so he poked his head in and said hi to her and that he was about to have a visitor and asked her to play along as if he had been there all along. He also asked her to put the kettle on for tea, so as to have an excuse to invite the visitor into the house and not have them standing around the front door, you just never knew what a witch or wizard might be dressed like and their appearance might have a few nosy neighbors asking questions. After agreeing to his request and admitting that he was correct in his assumptions about certain nosy neighbors, Harry ducked his head back out of the kitchen, turned around and headed for the front door, whoever was there was about to knock.

Outside, Bill Weasley brought his hand forth and quickly rapped three times on the main entrance to the house. He knew about the rear entrance of course, but was unfamiliar with the residents and he had heard stories about how they detested any people from THAT world. A moment later the door opened up and was greeted by the person that he really, really wanted to talk too, Harry Potter. The boy stood there, eying the visitor up and down from head to foot as if he was determining if the person was friend or foe. After a second or two of deliberation, the boy then spoke up, "Can I help you?" extending his hand towards Bill.

Reaching out his hand to return the gesture, Bill said, "Yes you can, I'm actually looking for you, Harry."

As Harry grabbed Bill's hand, he detected no hint of malice towards him and he felt the nervousness rolling off of the man in waves, which told him that the man was worried about being there. The other thing that Harry did during the handshake was to try and remember where he had seen this face before and quickly remembered that this person was Ron's older brother who had accompanied Mrs. Weasley to the third task of the Tri-Wizard tournament.

"Y-y-your Ron's older brother," Harry finally stammered out, portraying the weak, trusting, manipulated child that he used to be. "C-c-come in, m-m-my aunt has just put on some tea," he said while backing into the house and gesturing for Bill to enter.

As Bill entered the house, he noticed that Harry's eyes never stopped looking at him and it unnerved him a little bit, but given what the boy had been through, he didn't blame him at all. He had been close enough to hear the boy's declaration to Dumbledore that Lord Voldemort had returned and that was enough to cause fear in anyone, especially one who had been targeted by the dark lord, or at least, that was what Bill had been told by Albus and the reason he was here providing protection as a protector for him.

Once Bill was inside the house, Harry closed the door and gesturing towards the door at the end of the hallway said, "The kitchen is that way, my aunt has just put some tea on."

Standing in the entrance way, the sunlight streaming through the semi-circled array of windows in the front door and glinting off of Bill's dragon earring, he said, "I'd rather talk to you in private for a moment or two."

Raising his right eyebrow, Harry simply said, "Oh?," the response was meant as a question, but there was a slight command to his voice that simply stated, get on with it then, while he created a privacy dome around them with a mere thought, his aunt didn't need to hear this.

Bill felt the privacy ward jump into being, he wasn't a curse breaker for nothing, and peered at Harry a little closer. There was no wand present, but he could begin to sense some power emanating from the boy and Bill's heightened awareness started to calm down.

Harry noticed Bill's attention turn on him full force as the privacy dome sprung up about the two of them and felt Bill's hackles rise a little and then Harry felt like he was being scrutinized, so he started to emit his calming influence on Bill. He didn't want things to turn ugly, his emotions were still running a little high after yesterday's capture of Peter. After a moment or two, Harry started tapping his foot, a little impatience showing through, and said, "Well?"

Feeling the anxiety and nervousness was gone, Bill ventured forth, "I overheard some rather disturbing news this morning about you and as some ongoing events aren't making any sense to me, I thought that you should know what people are planning behind your back."

Feeling the sincerity oozing from the man, Harry said, "I have had a bad feeling about your sister all term and ever since I woke up after the Tri-Wizard tournament, Ron has been giving me the creeps, its like he hates me or something, but I can't put my finger on it." Mentally, he was prodding Hermione to wake up and moments later he was rewarded with a "_What_" from her.

_"I have a visitor at my aunt and uncle's house and I need you to come as quickly as you can, I have the funny feeling that this is going to concern you too."_

_"OK love, give me a few minutes and I will be there, where do you want me to appear?"_

_"On the front doorstep, I'll stall until you get here. Love you sweetheart."_

_"Love you too, see you soon."_

"Its funny that you say that, cause I get the feeling that Ron is not your friend at all and after I tell you what I have discovered over the past two weeks since I have moved back home, I think that you'll get a better picture of my little brother,"and mentally added, "and sister and mother also."

"OK, but I think that we should go and have a cup of tea, I have a friend coming over this morning that I think would want to hear this as well, and she is due to arrive in five minutes or so," and then gesturing towards the kitchen once more, Harry proceeded to lead Bill into the kitchen to meet his aunt.

As Harry and Bill walked into the kitchen, Petunia turned around from the counter where she was standing and started to say hello when she noticed Bill's red hair. Pointing a finger at him, she said "Your one of those little buggers that hurt my Duddicans."

Bill, not understanding started to say, "What," when Harry cut him off.

"Aunt Petunia, this is Bill Weasley. Yes, he is Fred's and George's older brother, but until two weeks ago, he was living in Egypt and doesn't know about what they did to Dudley."

"Oh," was her reply.

"And I apologize for what my two mischievous brothers may have done to your son, they're just pranksters and didn't mean any harm by it, that I am sure of," and turning to Harry said, "What did they do to him?"

"They left a handful of Ton Tongue Toffee laying around when they rescued me back in my second year."

"Ohhhh, a nasty prank to be sure, but it should have only lasted about five minutes."

"Well it didn't," said Petunia, "Little Duddicans ate all of them at once and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth and laying on the floor for nearly two hours."

Both Bill and Harry snorted at this revelation, but before anything more could be said, the doorbell rang. Harry looked at his aunt and said, "That's my girlfriend, is the tea ready?"

Seeing the look in her nephew's eyes, she said, "Yes, I thought that this person here was actually your girlfriend until you walked into the kitchen, I'll just grab another cup for her."

After seeing that his aunt was playing along, Harry left the kitchen to go and answer the door. When he opened it, the vision of beauty that assaulted his senses brought a large grin to his face. Gesturing to Hermione to come in, he closed the door after she entered. As she passed him by, he grabbed her up into a huge hug and for the next five minutes, they kissed passionately while he mentally updated her on what had transpired so far.

When Harry and Hermione entered the kitchen five minutes later, it was to raucous laughter, obviously Bill had been regaling his aunt with some of the twins past antics and pranks.

"Aunt Petunia, you remember my girlfriend," and turning to Bill, he said "Bill, this is Hermione Granger, my girlfriend of a week."

All present watched as the color drained from Bill's face and looked on as he managed to say, "Nice to finally meet you Miss Granger."

"I take it," Hermione began, "That you must be aware of what your asshole of a brother tried to do to me," anger evident in her eyes. Harry just stood back, enjoying her response, never in his life had he seen her use such language, except last night while discussing Peter's upcoming 'trial' and while they were in the bedroom.

"I have overheard several conversations over the past week and I am aware of what transpired last week, but until now, I didn't want to believe it, but seeing your reaction to the situation, I can see that there's more to it than I know."

"You're damn right there is," fumed Hermione. "Your brother is supposed to be that man's best friend," pointing a finger at Harry, "and he turned his back on him once more this year, when Harry really needed his friends for support."

"What do you mean, he turned his back on him again?"

"What she means Bill," Harry jumped in, "Is that during the second year, when it was revealed that I was a Parseltongue, your brother jumped to the other side of the fence and started calling me the next dark lord. He really only started being my friend again after setting his differences aside because of your sister and all. I don't think that he would've become my friend again if I hadn't saved her come to think of it."

"What do you mean you saved my little sister?" asked Bill.

"It means," said Hermione, "That Harry saved your sister from Lord Voldemort by first destroying the Basilisk that was let loose on the school and then destroying the memory of Tom Marvolo Riddle, a young Lord Voldemort before he was able to totally drain your sister's life-force and magic from her body."

"So what you're saying," began Bill, "Is that you," indicating Harry, "risked life and limb for my little sister, and my youngest brother was a useless prat towards you all year long and only became your friend after you saved her."

"Yup," said Harry, "And this year when I was forced to compete in the Tri-Wizard tournament, against my own wishes I might add, your brother was the first person to turn on me for the second time and instead of asking for my forgiveness, he told me that he forgave me and would allow me to be his friend once more. What a load of codswallop now that I think about it, I'm beginning to wonder if he was ever my friend in the first place," displaying a confused look to his face and feigning innocence to the entire scene.

"_What do you think Hermione, can we trust him_?"

_"I'm not getting any sense of deceit or untrustworthiness coming from him, but I think that he should answer a couple of our questions before we can honestly give him any sort of trust."_

_"I agree, you can ask the questions though, you're definitely better at it than I am and you look so darn sexy in lecture mode."_

_"Prat!"_

"What information did you overhear this morning," asked Hermione.

"Well," began Bill, "I had to visit the bathroom this morning about one o'clock and as I came down onto the second floor landing, I noticed that Ginny's bedroom door was open and she wasn't in her room. After checking the bathroom and not finding her, I started thinking that she may have snuck out to meet a boy or something, so I started to sneak down the stairs towards the kitchen and living room. About halfway down, I started hearing voices coming from the kitchen.

Albus Dumbledore was talking and there was something mentioned about you were supposed to be the one that was to take the portkey, not Cedric Diggory and that Ron would just have to wait that much longer before he got his money. My sister wanted to know when she was supposed to become pregnant and couldn't wait until she got her money as well. And then there was my mother, she has made the same potion that she often joked about using on dad all those years ago to make him fall in love with her. Only this time, one batch was designed for Harry and keyed to Ginny and a second batch was made for Hermione and keyed to Ron."

Mentally, Harry and Hermione agreed to feign shock and betrayal and a little bit of hatred at this news, but they already knew of this from the night that Ronald had attempted to rape Hermione.

"What," they both yelled in unison, "How could they," continued Hermione, "Ron was supposed to be our best friend and Ginny and I became close friends last year."

"And Mrs. Weasley," said Harry, "treated me like another son and I was beginning to think of her as a mother figure. Thanks for warning us."

"I was always curious," continued Hermione, "why the headmaster had an unusual interest in Harry, aside the fact that Harry is the-boy-who-lived and all. He was always telling me that he protected Harry and that as his guardian, he knew what was best for him and that he had to return here every year, unable to contact any of his friends."

Bill looked at Hermione and said, "Hermione, I am sorry for what my git of a brother did to you and I am glad that whoever or whatever saved you has my most sincere gratitude and thank him or her from the bottom of my heart, I have a feeling that your savior was this Avenging Angel that everyone has been talking about."

"It is," said Hermione reassuringly, "and I'm glad of what he did to your git of a brother, and to think that your mother is alright with what he was going to do to me."

Turning towards Harry, Bill said "I'm not sure what games my mother and the headmaster are playing, but they obviously have my two youngest siblings involved and not one of them have your best interests in mind, something about dieing in some kind of battle with You-Know-Who, so I am going to be as honest as I can with the two of you as I am able too," and then he did something that totally caught Harry and Hermione off guard. Bill Weasley pulled out his wand and pointed it skyward and said, "I, William Arthur Weasley, swear on my life and magic that I will not reveal any of this conversation to anyone outside of this room ever, unless asked to by either Harry Potter or Hermione Granger, also present in this room. I also agree to pass any further information on to Harry and Hermione that I might happen to overhear or come across that has anything to do with this conspiracy regarding both Harry and Hermione, so mote it be."

The moment that Bill had finished with his oath, a ball of blue magic formed at the tip of his wand and sat there, poised for something. Harry and Hermione glanced at each other and with a glance, both replied, "So mote it be." Immediately, the ball of blue light split into three and dove into the chests of the three magicals present, sealing the oath between the three.

Mentally, Harry said, "_Mione, I think that he's definitely trustworthy."_

_"I agree," _was the reply.

HP HG HP HG

A/N 2: The next chapter may be a day or two as I work on some of Harry's and Hermione's upcoming exploits!


	13. Chapter 13

_**Disclaimer**_

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: Mental conversations will be italicized.

Special thanks to kissinghollie for betaing my story.

Another note of thanks to lordblink for helping me develop my own crazy ideas into something readable.

And a special nod to CosmoGirl666 for allowing me to use her name as the name of the nightclub revealed in the last chapter, I forgot to give the nod there.

_**Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel**_

_**by DnG**_

_**Chapter Thirteen**_

Peter Pettigrew was afraid, very afraid and very alone. For some reason he couldn't transform into his rat form and this terrified him even more. On top of that, he had several places on his body that gave off a burning sensation, but he couldn't see what was causing the incessant pain because of their locations. He could feel a couple of marks on the bottom of his feet, a couple behind his knees, one on either side of his spine near his tailbone, two on the back of his arms above his elbows, two more on either shoulder blade, and one at the base of his skull where his spine connected to his brain, all connected by lines cut into his flesh, and connected directly to a master rune, drawn directly over his cowardly heart. It was like being prepped for a dark ritual, something that he knew that his master was famous for using.

Not for the last time since he woke up, he pondered just what had happened and how his master had found out about his failure. At least, he thought, his master would benefit from the ritual that was about to be performed on him and was so deep in thought, that he didn't hear the door open to wherever he was. It wasn't until light flooded the chamber that Peter realized that he was in some kind of ritual room and that there were two figures standing inside the door. They weren't wearing any masks, but their faces were definitely hidden in shadows. Like the coward that he was, he started begging for his release, that whatever transgressions that he had committed towards his master, that he would fix them up, he had the information about Severus that he had wanted and he was sorry that he was captured, but he didn't remember who had captured him, or how it had happened. He continued like this for a solid ten minutes, until the first voice, a feminine voice, spoke up.

"Peter, Peter, Peter, do you have any idea the trouble that your little disappearing trick last year caused me. I was almost attacked by a werewolf, I almost had my soul sucked out by those damn Dementors and I had a professor turn his wand on me like I was the threat, instead of you. And what do you do, you bite my friend and run off like the coward that you truly are."

Peter recognized that voice, it was the mud-blood that hung around that Weasley boy and Harry Potter. His thoughts were confirmed moments later as she pulled back her hood and said, "I can't wait until justice has been passed on you once and for all, you have caused so much pain and suffering and far too many innocent people have suffered at your hands."

Then the second person spoke up, "You have betrayed your last victim, you have spied for your master for the last time and your soul has been deemed unrecoverable by your own ability to continuously betray the life debt that you owe me."

Peter instantly knew who this voice belonged to and as the boy, no man before him pulled back his cowl, Peter peered into those emerald green eyes once more, the same pair of eyes that had spared his life only last year, creating the life debt. He knew that there was no escape now, that his life was forfeit, but Never once did he feel regret or show any sign of remorse for his actions and unknown to him, Harry was reading his thoughts determining the course of action to take and which phrase he would utter to activate the runes on the betrayer's body. Because of the lack of guilt and remorse, it left Harry with only one decision, complete obliteration.

Looking directly at Peter, Harry said, "Peter, for the betrayal of my parents and the countless other crimes that you have committed against wizarding kind, I hereby sentence you to a life of turmoil until you die." Finished with his sentencing, Harry pointed his wand at Peter's chest and uttered, "Agnosco Tui Facina Crebro Donec Abeo, 'admit your crimes repeatedly until you die'. As he finished the incantation, a beam of bright, golden light jumped from Harry's wand and hit Peter squarely in the chest and then Harry and Hermione exited the ritual chamber, only to take up seats on the outside wall that was charmed to allow people to watch the ritual from the outside.

At first, Peter didn't feel or notice anything from the spell and hoped that the boy was just playing a prank on him, to try and instill some kind of fear within him and to get revenge for his parents betrayal. But then the runes started to glow with a golden hue, the same color as the spell that had hit him only minutes ago, and then Peter was confronted by two images, the images of Harry Potter's parents, James and Lily Potter.

Peter's eyes grew wide in terror at the sight of his murdered friends that he had betrayed many years ago, but he then noticed that they both appeared like he always remembered them, but their eyes had a haunted look to them, and then he realized that their eyes were sightless, he had seen eyes like this several times before, they were the eyes who had been killed with the Avada Kedavra curse. And then they turned their haunted stares upon him and pointing at him they both said, "Why Peter, Why? We were your friends. How could you do this to us? How could you harm innocent little Harry? We treated you like family. We loved you like a brother."

Memories of years past involuntarily flew through his mind, drawn from the darkened recesses by the ritual, making him remember fond times spent with his friends, causing his body to shudder in uncontrollable fear. "No," shouted Peter and he shook his head, trying to clear away the images. Instantly they were gone, but then the image of a little brown eyed and brown haired girl took their places. He remembered her. She was the little girl that he had tortured and raped repeatedly in front of his master the night that he had received his dark mark. And then he had cast the killing curse upon her, ending her pathetic life. Now her lifeless eyes stared back at him, the evidence of her torture on display, the cuts and gashes across her face, arms and legs and finally her torso. There was blood oozing from her sex where he had violently defiled her body, and like James and Lily before, she pointed her finger at him and said, "Why? What did I ever do to you? Why do you hate me so much? I'm only seven years old. How come you can't love cute, adorable, little ol' Julia?"

Peter dropped to his knees, as if begging for mercy. The stress he felt, caused by the constant burning sensation of the runes, as well as the almost palatable feeling of fear in the room, along with the consistent barrage of memories of the screams of that little girl, cause him to once again scream out in emotional agony, "No!" As the images of the little girl faded, tears of anguish and fear tracked their way down his face. Suddenly, the scene changed once more. This time, he found himself staring into the vacant eyes of the first girl that he had thought he ever had feelings for, Emily Moon, a Hufflepuff student in the same year as he was. She had rebuked his advances when he had asked her to the Yule Ball during their fifth year. He was so humiliated by her actions that he broke into her home between Christmas and New Years and had slit her throat in her sleep, she deserved it after all. She too pointed her finger at him and asked, "Why me? What did I do to you that warranted my death? You said that you loved me."

The cries of fear, horror and remorse echoed throughout the ritual chamber, as once again Peter screamed "No," and the scene changed. In fact, as Harry and Hermione watched on, they observed Peter as he seemed to be confronted by many, many different people and they began to feel disgust and utter loathing towards the man. After making sure the recording crystal that Godric and Rowena had taught them how to make was working, they decided to contact Neville and make Harry's first foray into politics. Friday was fast approaching and Hermione's and her parent's short flight from London to Paris was scheduled to leave at five in the morning on Saturday, so they only had the rest of today together and Hermione was to be back at her parents by eight o'clock tomorrow night, they had to be at Heathrow airport by three o'clock in the morning. Harry would accompany her home, of course, and to the airport where he would say good-bye in the morning.

_**HP HG HP HG**_

Neville was elbow deep in dragon dung as he meticulously cared for each of the four hundred different magical plants that were housed in his own personal greenhouse. Professor Sprout had given him some clippings of plants out of greenhouse six, the restricted plants greenhouse at the end of the year and they were responding to his care rather fruitfully. This was how his Gran found him when she came to announce that he had a floo call waiting. When he asked who it was, her reply of "Harry Potter" had the pudgy boy on his feet in moments and heading to the wash station to clean up while tearing off his dragon-hide gloves.

Five minutes later, Neville was looking at Harry Potter's head as it poked out of his fireplace. "Hi Harry, what can I do for you?" he asked nervously, not sure of what to make of the Boy-Who-Lived poking his head out of his fireplace.

"Well, Hermione and I were wondering if we could come over and talk with you and possibly your Gran? I have some information that you both might find important."

"Give me a minute and I'll go ask, alright?"

"Sure thing Neville, we'll be waiting right here until you return."

"Alright, I'll just be a moment," and then Neville raced off out of the room in search of his Gran. Two minutes later, the boy ran back into the room, slightly out of breath and said, "Gran says its OK, so back out for a minute, I have to unlock to floo so that you can come through. Our address is The Greenery."

A minute later, Hermione Potter stepped out of the fireplace at Longbottom Manor followed closely by her husband. Greetings and handshakes were exchanged and Neville said, "Welcome to Longbottom Manor, the house of the Longbottoms for the past thousand years."

Both Harry and Hermione knew this already from there time spent with Godric and Rowena going over the Most Noble and Most Ancient families and replied in unison, "We know."

A flabbergasted Neville's jaw dropped open at the statement, but he quickly regained his composure and asked, "How didVigilante Harry Chapter

you know, its not like I talked about it and you Never mentioned that you knew," looking directly at Harry for the latter part of the statement.

"Easy Neville, I have learned an awful lot over the past two weeks and I need to converse with you and your Gran about politics."

Neville stood a little taller at this, the only thing he was better at then plants, was politics and his Gran had drilled every last nuance into his skull, determined to have him ready upon his sixteenth birthday to assume his head of house status. It had been determined over the winter break that if his father wasn't able to return to a competent state by Neville's sixteenth birthday, then Neville was to take up the mantel and become the Longbottom of Longbottom and take his seat on the Wizengamot and continue the struggle against the darkness in his father's stead. Gesturing down the hallway from where he had come from, he followed Harry and Hermione as he directed them to the library where his Gran had tea set out and was waiting to greet his friends.

As they entered the library, Hermione's eyes temporarily glazed over at the sight of so much knowledge, but a nudge to the ribs from Harry brought her out of her daze. They were greeted by an elderly, but stately looking woman who had to be in her eighties, at least. But when she rose to greet them, she moved with the grace of a woman half her age.

"Its nice to finally meet you Mr. Potter" extending her hand, knuckles up.

Harry had been expecting this, after being drilled on etiquette for nearly a week straight and lent forward, placing a kiss on the top of her hand and then said, "Thank you, Lady Longbottom, for allowing my friend and I to visit this afternoon."

Turning to Hermione, Lady Longbottom broke tradition and lent forward placing a kiss on Hermione's cheek and said, "Welcome to Longbottom Manor as well Miss Granger, Neville has said so much about you and Harry that I already feel like I know the two of you."

"T-t-thank you," managed a shocked and slightly embarrassed Hermione.

"Now," said Lady Longbottom, "Neville has informed me that you want to talk about politics, what is it that you wish to know?"

"Well," began Harry, "I remember Neville telling me that you held the Longbottom seat on the Wizengamot and I was wondering just how that whole thing worked, I found out that when I turn sixteen, as I am the last of my own house, I can take up my position on the Wizengamot and any and all information on how it is run would be helpful."

"Oh my," said Augusta, "Does Albus Dumbledore know what you are about to do," half musing to herself and half out loud.

"Excuse me," said Harry, "I didn't quite hear that."

"Did you see her reaction Hermione, I get the impression that she doesn't like Albus too much either. What do you think?"

"I get the feeling that there is some history there between the two of them and it isn't pleasant."

"Oh, pardon my manners, Mr. Potter, its just that Albus Dumbledore has held proxy over your votes since your parents death, but I distinctly remember that your guardianship was to be held by someone else, but for the love of me, I can't rightly remember who except that it wasn't supposed to be your headmaster."

"More reason for you to get your butt to Gringotts Mr. Potter."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be going after you get your cute little ass on the plane Saturday morning."

"You better."

"I will, and you better be prepared to return on a moments notice if I need you there with me."

"I will."

"I get the impression that you don't seem to like the headmaster very much," stated Harry.

"You're damn right she doesn't," blurted out Neville

"Neville!," said Augusta, "Mind your manners, "but with a hint of humor behind her eyes. "Neville is quite right, I still hold Albus responsible for what happened to my dear Frank and Alice. It was him that told them to go into hiding and then they were attacked shortly after. They were perfectly fine here at The Greenery, it has some of the best wards around, second only to the wards around your ancestral home, Potter Castle."

"Really," said an excited Harry.

"I wonder why Godric and Rowena Never told us about that."

"I'm not sure love,we'll have to inquire when we return to our new residence."

"I had no idea," continued Harry, "In fact, I have discovered an awful lot of things over the past couple of weeks about myself that I should have known about before I even started at Hogwarts, but enough about that, I need to know how the Wizengamot works today and who controls what."

Augusta Longbottom sized Harry up for a moment or two and then looked at her grandson, "Neville, I think that it would do you good to explain to Mr. Potter how things run, that way I can see if you understand it as well."

"OK," said Neville a little nervously, "I'll give it my best shot," and addressing Harry and Hermione he began.

Fifteen hundred years ago, King Arthur and Merlin were recognized as the rulers of the non-magical and magical worlds within Britain respectively. Merlin was responsible for everything magical, from witches and wizards, to the Goblins, to the Veela, to the Vampires and Werewolves, even the Merfolk. Then as the years passed and Arthur eventually died, Merlin faded from the public eye, although he still reigned over the magical world. He did this because the new monarch had his own advisors and relied on Merlin's advice less and less.

The population of witches and wizards began to grow at this point and it started becoming a problem around the year nine hundred and fifty. There were lots and lots of little witches and wizards running around without anyone to teach them how to wield their magic properly. Then Merlin happened upon Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin in the mid nine hundred and eighties. They were teaching a village full ofchildren how to use their magic. After spending several weeks living in the village and spending time in deep conversation with the four teachers, they decided to create a school on a nearby parcel of land that Merlin had been given by Arthur in his last days as a token of the friendship that they had shared over the years.

It took the combined efforts of the five and nearly seven years to complete it, but Hogwarts was finally able to open her doors in September of nine hundred and ninety-two to the first of a multitude of students to come through her doors. The students were sorted into the four different houses that Godric, Rowena, Helga and Salazar watched over respectively. Each house took on the students that best represented the ideals of the person that watched over the house that they were sorted into. It wasn't long before the houses of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin were born and it has been kept that way ever since. Then Merlin passed on the leadership of the magical community to the recognized four founders of Hogwarts before he passed onto the next great adventure.

The four founders were already married when Merlin had come across them and their sons and daughters attended Hogwarts over the years, the last of their children attending in the year ten fifty, before Merlin had passed on. As a way to keep their lines from converging and dieing out, the boys kept their father's names and the girls kept their mother's. That way, there was another generation of Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Slytherins. This led to other families marrying into the founders lines, most noteably the Blacks, Bones', Davis', Greengrass', Lovegood's and the Gaunts. Notice that the Longbottoms and Potters are missing from that collection of notable families. That's because one of Salazar's descendants went dark and started killing off all of the founder's lines. Fearing the worst, Godric and Rowena had their two youngest boys' names changed to Potter and Longbottom and hidden away in an orphanage for protection. The last act that the four founders enacted before their deaths in twelve forty-eight was to pass on the reigns of power to the heads of the houses of Black, Bones, Davis, Greengrass, Longbottom, Lovegood and Potter. The Gaunt family was overlooked because of the darkness that had enveloped that branch of the Slytherin family. Unfortunately, the true heir to the Slytherin heritage came from that house, but by giving the rights of power away to a lesser house, the Black family, the first dark lord of the magical world was unable to grasp the reins of power for himself. He did however, place the house of Slytherin into the anals of history as a house of the dark and cunning, tainting it forever in the eyes of the public.

At first, the seven houses sought to restore peace and harmony to the land after the upheaval that saw the deaths of the four founders and the demise of the first ever dark lord. From there, the houses kind of split. The Potters and Longbottoms became the supporters and protectors of the less fortunate. They believed in equal rights for all magical beings, whether human or creature. The Blacks, along with the cast out Gaunt family sought to overthrow everyone else, suppress those that were not of pure blood, didn't support their ideology, or were not human. The Bones family became the house that enforced the laws and dealt out the appropriate punishments. They became well-known for their inability to be corrupted and ran the justice system without interference. The Lovegood family made their living in the publishing business and began the first of several newspapers and magazines before the Wizengamot was even formed. The Davis and Greengrass families have always been in the trade business, which became all the more important after the Wizengamot was formed and the Statute of Secrecy was created. Because of their contacts, goods from the muggle world were still able to be obtained through their businesses. They have remained outside the political games and have chosen to stay neutral from the beginning.

It was decided between the seven heads of house in the early fifteen hundreds that a better judicial system should be put in place since none of the houses could see eye to eye anymore. It was decided to create the Wizengamot, after their muggle counterpart, assigning a seat to each of the heads of houses that were around at that time. The Chief Witch or Warlock was a position that was created and could only be filled by a person that was chosen by a majority vote cast by the members of the newly formed Wizengamot. His or her duties was to oversee the governing body and to enforce the laws of the land while in session. He or she would be responsible for casting any proxy votes that were temporarily assigned to the courts. Each of the seats were made hereditary and were passed onto the heir apparent when the current head of house passed on, or chose a proxy to sit their seat, a position that was given to by the head of house. If the heir apparent wasn't of age, then the closest living female blood relative would sit proxy for the house seat, but not have any other rights and obligations pertaining to the house itself, only performing the duties set forth by the former head. If this was not a possibility, then the Chief Warlock would sit proxy and vote the position until the heir apparent came of age. If a line ever died out, like so many did during the first war with Lord Voldemort, then the vote was supposed to go all the way back to its founding house and then be passed onto the most direct heir. That way,outsiders couldn't marry into power, just to kill off the heir apparent and take control of the house for themselves. Greed has played a big part in this since Lord Voldemort's rise to power during the first war and why so many dark affiliated families have multiple votes today. Fortunately though, anyone can walk into Gringotts and request an inheritance test that will trace one's heritage back to their founding house to help uncover any discrepancies that the ministry is trying to hide. In this case, blood has everything to do with the outcome and the magic that is contained within the blood does not lie.

The ministry approved inheritance tests really only serves to prove the purity of one's blood back four generations and serves to fulfill the beliefs of the pure blood elitists and those that choose to support them. But the heads of the seven houses foreseen this and there was a little codicil that was attached to the original documents that swore the Wizengamot into being that states that should the original seven houses ever become one in purpose again, like the four founders before them, or just like Merlin in the beginning, all the rights and obligations of the Ruling Seven as they were once known, would be returned to them and the magic that had been used to create the Wizengamot would be stripped away and the Wizengamot would be disbanded."

"I have a question Neville," interjected Harry.

"What's that," replied Neville.

"What would happen if there were heirs found for all of the original founders, heirs to Godric, Rowena, Helga or Salazar?" inquired Harry.

"Not much. The founders gave all of their political power to the Ruling Seven before they died. Why?" asked Neville.

"Because you are a Longbottom and I am a Potter and according to your little speech, are we not related to Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw?"

Neville had to pause and think temporarily as he thought about what Harry had just brought to light. Meanwhile, when Harry and Hermione glanced over at Madam Longbottom, she had a cheshire-like grin spreading across her face.

Nudging Hermione mentally, Harry said, "What do you think that she's thinking about?"

"I'm not sure, but the grin only happened after you mentioned that fact that you and Neville are descendants of Godric and Rowena."

"Do you think that I should tell them that I am Salazar's and Helga's heir too?"

"I think that you should wait until we find out what Neville's response is and what Madam Longbottom is thinking."

"I guess you're right."

"Of course I am."

"Minx."

"And damn proud of it."

"Love you."

"Love you too."

"I think that Neville's finally come up with an answer, pay attention," directed Harry.

"Prat!" replied Hermione, giving him a mental slap in the process.

They could see as their friend finally connected the dots and pieced his political knowledge carefully together and readied his response to Harry's question.

"It really won't carry any political sway in the Wizengamot," began Neville, "But it means that the two of us own half of Hogwarts though. Its a pity that we can't convene the Ruling Seven again."

"Why's that?" asked Harry.

""Because they have the power to disband the Wizengamot and take back the power that the ministry has managed to corrupt. Lucius Malfoy and his friends, the LeStranges, the Averys and the Notts to name a few are able to bribe the minister of magic and have avoided persecution for their parts in You-Know-Who's first rise to power. They have even paid off people to have certain laws passed into being and the Ruling Seven would have the power to revoke that kind of legislation. They could literally undo every law that was written into existence since its inception back in the mid fifteen hundreds."

"So why can't we revive the Ruling Seven then?"

"Because its not possible," said Neville, his demeanor deflating as the reality of the situation sunk back in, that there was no short term solution to the problem that the entire wizarding world found themselves in.

"Why isn't it possible?" pushed Harry.

"Because we would need the heads of the houses, or their proxy holders, to come together under a unified purpose once more and then they would have to appear at a full session of the Wizengamot. Then, and only then, would the magic of the codicil attached to the original document that created the Wizengamot recognize that the seven were united once more and their power and authority would be returned to them, stripping the Wizengamot of its power and abilities and disband it completely. But therein lies the problem, the seven haven't seen eye to eye in nearly five hundred years and they certainly aren't about to either."

"So why isn't it possible?" asked Harry, pushing Neville a little bit more for a better answer.

"Because, although the Bones, Davis, Greengrass, Longbottom, Lovegood and Potter families might be convinced to do this, the Black family is most definitely deadset against it as all of the living members are supporters of Voldemort."

"I see," said Harry as he absently scratched at his chin. "How could we convince the Davis and Greengrass families then?"

"Oh, that's simple actually. The Longbottoms have had an alliance with the Davis and Greengrass families for several generations now because they buy a lot of our potions ingredients that are grown in the Longbottom greenhouses," replied Neville with pride evident in his voice and a glimmer to his eye.

"What about the Bones family then?" queried Harry.

Neville's cheeks darkened slightly at the name of Bones and both Harry and Hermione noticed this.

"Do you think that Neville is sweet on Susan?" asked Hermione through their mental link.

"From the looks of it, it definitely sounds like a possibility. I want to see what he says though."

"Er, well, I kind of like Susan," blurted out Neville finally, his face going dark from the embarrassment of the moment.

"Good on you mate. She's a sweet girl and the two of you would look very good together," commented Harry.

"Thanks Harry," returned Neville, his face starting to lighten up a little.

"What about the Lovegood's?" asked Hermione.

"Xenophilius may be a tad eccentric, but he has always been a supporter of the light," said Madam Longbottom.

"So that means that all families except the Blacks could be agreeable to this then?" asked Harry

"Most definitely," Stated Neville.

"Now, how exactly would the magic contained with the codicil be activated then? Do the seven have to declare their intentions in front of the full wizengamot, for instance?" asked Harry, trying to get as much information out of Neville and Madam Longbottom as possible.

"No! The seven only have to be in the chambers and in full agreement and unified in their purpose for the magic to be invoked," exclaimed Neville.

"Good," stated a now visibly happy Harry. Then he grabbed Hermione up in a hug and swung her around joyously.

"Er, mate, what's got into you?" asked a now nervous Neville.

"Because the entire wizarding world of Britain is about to get a wake up call on August 1, when I show up to claim my head of house status, that is if you can get the other houses on board. I already have the Black seat in my pocket," exclaimed Harry.

"How?" asked Madam Longbottom.

"Its quite simple actually. Sirius Black is innocent. He is also my godfather."

"What!" screamed Augusta Longbottom. "That manipulative old goat-fucker, how dare he," ranted Augusta, regaining her composure almost immediately after a long supressed memory was unlocked. Meanwhile three teenagers looked on with looks of awe and wonder plastered across their faces. One because he had Never seen his Gran come unglued like that and the other two because they had just discovered another ally who strongly disliked Albus Dumbledore as much as they did.

"Do you know what this means Harry?" Augusta asked, once she had regained her composure.

"Not a clue actually."

"It means that your Godfather is indeed innocent, there is an ancient ritual that a person has to undergo when agreeing to become a godparent which basically makes their life forfeit if they ever bring harm to or betray their intended charge. And since Sirius Black is still alive, he didn't break the vow and a certain headmaster has a lot of explaining to do, he was the one to perform the ritual and my Frank and Alice were the witnesses, although they Never told me who the godparent was, sworn to secrecy and all."

At that point, information started to click together in their minds, some at the speed of thought, while others took a little longer to process it, but the overall consensus was that Albus Dumbledore was about to experience a thrashing the likes of none other and it was going to get him where it would hurt the most, his political persona was going to be exposed for the evil, manipulative, goat-fucking bastard that he truly was.

Neville capped the meeting off when he announced, "The Ruling Seven are about to kick ass."

With their conversation over with and pleasantries said, Harry and Hermione returned to Gryffindor's suites after agreeing to visit once she had returned from France, they had a lot of planning to do for Harry's coming out party on his birthday.

_**HP HG HP HG**_

A/N 2: Please read and review


	14. Chapter 14

59408

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: Mental conversations will be _italicized_.

Special thanks to kissinghollie for betaing my story.

Another note of thanks to lordblink for helping me develop my own crazy ideas into something readable.

A/N 2: It has been pointed out that I messed up with the ages of Harry, Hermione and Nevil. Sorry for any confusion and from this point on, their proper ages will be reflected. Harry will be taking his seat as Lord Potter on his fifteenth birthday, along with Nevil, instead of their sixteenths.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Fourteen

Lord Voldemort was pacing back and forth in his private chambers. He was counting the problems that he had encountered so far by not having the Potter boy show up in the graveyard, he had been sure that Albus was going to try and force a confrontation between the two at that point, but was slightly caught off guard when the other lad had shown up. Lucius did an outstanding job with Cornelius, he mused, getting the Minister to suppress the information like that, but who in the hell is this Avenging Angel. Whoever he or she was, they had managed to catch one of his inner circle before he had a chance to secure a firm grip on one of the many muggle financial strongholds and an endless supply of gold to force his ideals on the world.

The main reason that the boy was to be used for the ritual though, was the encounter that he had had with the boy while possessing Quirenus Quirrell during the child's first year at Hogwarts. He had underestimated the power of the ancient magics that Lily Potter had invoked that night at Godric's Hollow and did not know that the magical protection was inside the boy instead of surrounding the boy, so it should have been the boy's blood used in the ritual. A setback to be sure, for now, but one that was most definitely conquerable.

He knew where the boy lived of course, but the blood wards that were in place, and he was sure that Albus had placed them there, were nigh on impenetrable to anyone intending harm, bore the dark mark, or were under the influence of a potion or in someone else's control. What he didn't know about the wards was the fact that until recently, they were a constant drain on the boys magic and that the link was cut and the wards were beginning to weaken. Unfortunately, the new protections that the boy had created himself were ten times stronger and more lethal than Albus' ever thought of being, but that wouldn't be discovered until the first attack on Privett Drive.

And not for the hundredth time in the past few days, he pondered on his potions master's whereabouts and why he hadn't responded to his summons. Was he a traitor like Bella and Peter kept saying he was, was he dead, incapacitated? And where the hell was that snivelling rat, he was due back with a report and he was late. Three of his inner circle were, at the least, temporarily out of the game and he could ill afford any more screw ups. He was going to have to do something to instill fear back into the worldand an attack on diagon alley on Saturday would be the right time. It was a weekend, Hogwarts was out and the Alleys would be at their busiest, maybe the attack should be scheduled for eleven o'clock in the morning, before lunch when everyone was out and about.

He strode out of his private chambers, down the hallway and entered his throne room at the other end of the hall, pausing long enough to use the dark mark on one of his minions to summon Lucius. Minutes later, a crack of apparition could be heard out on the grounds announceing his servant's arrival and moments later, the blond haired aristocrat rushed into the chamber, bowing and kissing the hem of his master's robes.

"You have summoned me master, how may I serve you".

"Lucius, I need you to put a team together and have a little fun in Diagon Alley tomorrow. The attack should take place around eleven o'clock in the morning, when the most people are present and the terror of the attack will be at its highest possibility of creating the greatest amount of fear" amongst the people. Cause damage, wreak a little mayhem, kill no more than five mud-bloods, cast the dark mark and then get out. It should send a message".

"Is that all milord?"

"No, if you or any of your team get caught, your stay in Azkaban will be permanent and I'll take my displeasure out on any who should return from such a failure".

Gulping silently, Lucius said, "Yes milord, shall I leave now so that I can round up my team?"

"Yes, now be gone from my sight, my patience is wearing thin".

After Lucius departed from the throne, Lord Voldemort started wondering once more, how he could get around Albus Dumbledore's defenses and get at the boy. He needed the boy out in the open so that he could finish him off once and for all, his own inability to destroy the child, to end his life was driving him even madder than he already was.

"Albus Dumbledore, my old mentor", mused the dark lord, "You can't hide the boy forever, those blood wards will fall on his seventeenth birthday, and then what will you do? My informants have been telling me that you haven't even been training the boy. What game are you playing at? Are you using him to fulfill the prophecy so that you can finish me off yourself? Good luck, I'm more powerful than you ever thought of being, even if you do have control of the fabled Death Stick".

HP HG HP HG

Friday morning saw the rat running frantically around the ritual chamber once more. The runes were still gold and they were patiently waiting for them to turn crimson. Once that happened, they had been told that Peter would randomly start spewing out his different crimes and offences admidst his continuous rantings and ravings. From there, the runes would turn green signifying that he had indicated all of the crimes that he had committed and that depending on his strength of will, was close to slipping into an unrecoverable state of catatonia. This would be indicated by the runes turning black, there task complete as foregiveness could not come from the dead, one had to cross over before that possibility ever had a chance to happen.

"Hermione, what do you want to do today, being that its our last day before you and your parents have to leave for Paris".

"I don't know sweetheart, I'd like to go to Diagon Alley and visit Flourish and Blots. I'd like to get some new reading material for the trip".

"Sounds like an idea, and maybe we can stop at Fortescue's for an ice cream after?"

"I'd love that, when do you want to leave?"

"After a shower", Harry said, with his eyebrows waggling slightly.

"You're on mister", giving Harry a playful push that sent him sprawling onto the loveseat behind him. Turning on her heels, she wiggled her bum at him and then ran towards the bedroom and the bathroom beyond.

"Minx, I'll get you for that".

HP HG HP HG

Lucius and Narcissa stepped out of the Floo at the nightclub, followed closely by their son Draco. Lucius had intentions of meeting up with some of the fellow Death Eaters and plan out the attack that was to take place tomorrow morning. He didn't want to fail his master because of the implied threat of failure, because he knew that the least amount of punishment would be the use of the cruciatus curse on his own person and his master's curse was the strongest that he had ever been subjected to. No, he wouldn't fail the dark lord tomorrow, his very sanity depended on it.

The family of three walked out of the club into the midmorning sun and turned into Knockturn Alley, there were a few shops to visit down there and a few supporters that he could round up. He actually had one particular person in mind, Fenrir Greyback. He knew that the werewolf could round up at least twenty of his own kind that would be more than willing to don the cloaks and masks and bring a little mayhem to Diagon Alley.

As the Malfoys made their way into Knockturn Alley, Harry and Hermione came through the Floo in the Leaky Cauldron. Waving at Tom the barman, the pair of teenagers made their way to the entrance to Diagon Alley at the back of the pub. After tapping the proper stone and watching the archway form, they made their way towards Flourish and Blots, hand in hand.

Upon reaching the bookstore, Harry opened the door for Hermione with a gallantly sweeping bow, as he was feeling a little silly at the moment and said, "Your destiny awaits milady". Harry decided that the laugh that erupted from Hermione's lips at his actions was well worth the silliness and that he most definitely loved the laugh. The slap to his shoulder and the utterance of 'Prat!' as Hermione passed only served to make Harry start laughing himself.

Once inside the shop, they made their ways back through the rows and stacks of books, not really searching for anything in particular, but more for that one book that just jumped out at you in its odd and unique way. What they eventually settled on was the fifth year Charms and Transfiguration text books, for Hermione and her constant thirst for knowledge and for Harry, to appease his wife. Once their purchases were paid for, they strolled down the alley a little bit further until they came to Eelops Owl Emporium where Harry purchased some more owl treats for Hedwig and Hermione bought some catnip and a couple of kitty toys for Crookshanks.

Once they were done getting their supplies and tired of wandering, they made their way towards Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour where, upon arrival, Harry purchased a double-sized vanilla scoop sundae covered with nuts and strawberries that were drizzled with hot mint chocolate fudge. Then they proceeded to the patio where they took in the early afternoon sun while they indulged in the delights of the sundae like any couple in love would. As Harry Placed another spoonful of the melted chocolate into Hermione's mouth, some movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he watched as the Malfoy family prance into Diagon Alley from the seedier Knockturn Alley.

Pausing in his romantic attempts to spoonfeed his wife, he failed to notice as the hot fudge dribbled off of the spoon and onto Hermione's chin. A slightly annoyed 'ahem' caused him to snap his attention back to his wife, and seeing the chocolate running down her chin, Harry quickly leaned in, placing his mouth around the offending mess, and lightly sucked the mess away.

When he was done, Hermione looked at him for a second or two before saying, "What seems to have garnered your attention away from me".

Instead of answering her, Harry just placed a hand on her chin and turned her head in the Malfoy's direction and politely pointed them out with his other.

"Oh", she said, "The proud peacocks are out mingling among the pheasants". I wonder what has them out gracing the general public with their aristocratic facade".

The slight dig at the Malfoy gene pool caught Harry off guard momentarily and he nearly snorted into the sundae from the quirkiness of the comment. "I don't know, but it should be rather amusing to sit here and watch what the high and mighty do for excitement when they're not wearing their masks and cloaks".

Continuing to eat the sundae, both teenagers watched as Lucius helped Draco and his wife into a store and then observed him walking a couple of stores down. As he neared one of the many side alleys, a figure in a gray cloak stepped out of the alley in front of Lucius Malfoy. They seemed to exchange words and then parted, the gray cloaked man fading back into the side alley and Lucius made his way back to the potions shop.

_"Hermione, do you feel like having a little fun before we head for your parents?"_

_"What do you have in mind, love?"_

_"How about we fade from view and follow the Malfoys around, Merlin knows how irritating both male Malfoys can be and maybe I can get some dirt on them"._

_"You mean like our first covert operation then?", excitement flooding her voice._

_"Something like that. I can sense something dark and I think that we should investigate, give us a chance to stretch our wings a little bit, if you get my meaning"._

Getting up from their table, Harry and Hermione dropped the remnants of their sundae in the closest trash bucket and made their way off of the patio and into the tree-lined playground that was next door to the ice cream parlour. Their eyes never left the potion shop and when they were sure that no one could see them amongst the trees, they faded from view simultaneously. Moments later, the two Angels of Fury were on the rooftop of the ice cream parlour, waiting for the Malfoys to come out.

They spent the next three hours watching the Malfoys visit several of the more darker businesses of Diagon Alley and observed Lucius meeting up with the same grey cloaked figure no less than a dozen times throughout the course of the afternoon. As the day waned, the Malfoys finally returned to Knockturn Alley where they met up with a shabby looking man. Closer observation caused Hermione's brain to start working and as the Malfoys separated from the man and headed into the Cosmo Girl, Hermione mentally spoke to Harry.

_"I think that that person is Fenrir Greyback. He dresses like Remus and he kind of smells a little bit like Remus too"._

_I agree, although I think that his stink has a more foul odor to it, don't you think"._

_"Most definitely. Do you want to follow him and see what he gets up to"._

_"It couldn't hurt. Besides, it looks like the Malfoys are going for dinner anyways and it might be just a _little more exciting".

Deciding to follow the known werewolf, they glided from rooftop to rooftop as Fenrir made his way deeper into Knockturn Alley. Occasionally, Fenrir would stop and talk to different people, but he was always making his way further and deeper into the magical shopping center of London.

HP HG HP HG

Fenrir Greyback, the notorious leader of the Greyback werewolf pack, slowly stocked the unsuspecting young teenager down a secluded section of Nocturn Alley. As he crept closer and closer, constantly sniffing the air for any hints of more delectable prey, or unseen predators, he grew more and more anxious for the moment he could pounce on the absent minded teenager. Suddenly, he reached forward, and grabbed the teenager, causing him to scream in fright.

"Well now, what have we here?" sneered Fenrir. ""Haven't your mommy and daddy ever told you that it isn't a good idea to wander down here in Nocturn Alley? You might run into evil men with terrible intentions..., men like me!

As the young boy started to try and struggle out of Fenrir's grip, Fenrir gave a low, throaty growl. As soon as the youngster heard this sound, he realized exactly how much trouble he was really in. As the boy began to scream for help, Fenrir simply stood there, and laughed.

"No one is coming to help you boy! Down here, they all know who I am, and what I am. They're all afraid of being the next in line. Now..., come along, I'll take you back to the den, where you'll wait with the others, and when the full moon rises, you'll join the family!"

Just as Fenrir tucked the young lad under his arm, and began to turn towards the 666 club, the air was suddenly knocked out of his lungs, as a sudden jolt of pain shot through his chest from a sudden invisible impact. Fenrir flew backwards into the block wall directly behind him, hitting it with such force, that the concrete morter between the blocks actually cracked. Fenrir gave his head a groggy shake, and looked up into the eyes of a creature he had never seen before. The creature seemed to loom over him, at an approximate hight of about seven feet tall. The lion's head roared at him in anger, and with the manner in which it stood, also in challenge.

Fenrir quickly surveyed the area around him, only to notice that a second creature, only female in nature, seemed to be wisking the young teenager away to safety. As Fenrir got to his feet, he answered the creatures challenge with asnarling growl of his own. "I don't know who you are, or even what you are, but you've just made the last mistake you're ever going to make. I am the alpha, and I back down to nobody!"

Before Harry's eyes, he watched as Fenrir began to change..., only the change didn't seem to complete. Fenrir's finger nails grew into claw like extentions, and his teeth began to elongate, similar to a natural werewolf transformation. He grew some in body mass, but nothing compared to a full transformation. As he completed his partial change, he positioned himself in an aggressive posture, as if ready to attack. Harry, already in a defensive position, was ready for Fenrir's next move. Suddenly, Fenrir leapt forwards, his clawed hands extended, attempting to grab Harry by the throat. Harry met his hands in the air with his own, reefing Fenrir to the side, and slamming him into the wall on the opposite side of the alley. Unfortunately for Harry, Fenrir was well versed in hand to hand battle, from years of maintaining his position as the alpha in the pack. As Fenrir hit the wall, his legs pushed him off of the wall, and right back at the unsuspecting Harry, who was knocked backwards onto his back. Fortunately, Harry was a quick study, and had learned his lessons well, so he rolled with the blow, and also, using his back legs, pushed against the lower abdomen of Fenrir, and sent him flying backwards through the air. Following through on the roll, Harry was once again back on his feet, and back into an attack stance.

Picking himself up off of the ground, Fenrir wiped the blood off of the side of his lip, smiled, and said, "Not too bad. I can see that you managed to survive the kiddies yard, so let's see how you do with the big boys!" With a running leap, Fenrir gave a snap kick to Harry's mid section, only to have it miss, as Harry simply turned himself out of the way. Unfortunately, this move left Harry wide open for Fenrir to rake his clawed hands across Harry's chest. Feeling the burning pain of the deep cut gouges, Harry roared in agony, and began his own attack.

Harry took a running leap forward, directly into the surprised, and unsuspecting Fenrir. The two smashed through a door, and into the display room of an exotic wood's furniture store. The astonished store clerk, seeing the two battling, decided that she wasn't making enough gallions to break up this fight, and decided it was time to search for a safer job, like guarding vaults with the dragons in Gringotts. The two combatants continued to hammer on each other, until finally Harry was able to get in a lucky hit, using a throne like chair made of iron wood, and drove Fenrir back out into the alleyway. Fenrir was slow in rising up off of the ground, and as he seen his approaching opponent, he reached out and grabbed an innocent female victim, who was attempting to escape from the carnage in the alley. Fenrir held the young lady by the back of her neck, and his opposite hand, with claws still extended, against her throat.

"Go ahead!" yeled Fenrir, "Just take one more step closer, and I'll make sure that what is left of her will make front page news in tomorrow's edition of the Daily Prophet. I don't think they'll be able to recognize her pretty young face when I'm done with it."

As Harry stood there, all he could do was watch, as this inhuman beast threatened the life of another innocent person. As Harry thought to himself, that there simply was no way of redeeming people like Fenrir Greyback, the essences of the griffin and the phoenix seemed to instinctively agree. Although he didn't like it, Harry knew that one way, or another, Fenrir had to be put down, permanently. As Fenrir continued to stand there, and taunt Harry, with his prisoner still in hand, he took no notice of the approaching female version of his opponent. With a sudden, surprising jerk upwards, Fenrir lost the grip on his captive, and that was all that Harry needed to start his final attack on Fenrir Greyback.

With a quick slashing motion, Harry drew his claws down across the chest of Fenrir Greyback, down towards each hip, leaving deep bleeding gashes. As Fenrir screamed in agony, Harry moved around behind the partially transformed werewolf, and with a quick jerking motion, removed the use of Fenrir's achilles tendon. As Fenrir was dropped to the ground, his damaged leg gave out on him, and he dropped to the ground, unable to stand. A sudden motion off to the side drew Harry's attention momentarily, and that was all the time that Fenrir needed to withdraw a hidden portkey, and before activating it, and portkeying off to safety, he said, "You may have gotten the drop on me this time..., whatever you are, but the next time we meet, the end results will be entirely different." With a quick flash of blue, signalling the use of a portkey, Fenrir was gone.

Moments later, Hermione's arms wrapped around Harry's torso avoiding the gouges across his chest and they both disappeared in a burst of flames. Rita Skeeter's quill couldn't write the amazing story that she had just witnessed fast enough.

HP HG HP HG

The two Angels of Fury reappeared in Hermione's bedroom at her parents. Moments later, Harry was laying on the bed and Hermione was leaving the room, both reverted to their natural forms.

"Mom. Dad. Come quick, I need some cleaning supplies".

Moments later, Dan and Emma appeared at the top of the stairs and headed directly towards their daughter.

"What happened honey, why do you need some cleaning supplies".

"Um, well, Harry and I were having some ice cream earlier when we saw someone that we decided to follow inconspicuously and to make a long story short, he met up with someone else, and that person was about to attack another kid our age, and we decided to intervene on the other kid's behalf, and Harry kind of got hurt a little bit".

"How bad is he?", asked Emma.

"He has some nasty looking scratches across his chest and I really need some antiseptic supplies to clean the wound".

Looking at her husband, Emma said, "Dan, you go and grab some supplies while I go and assess the situation".

At this point, Hermione was near panic mode because she knew who Fenrir Greyback was and more importantly, what he was and she didn't know if her Harry had been infected with the Lycanthropy virus. As she led her mother into the bedroom, both females were shocked at the sight. Emma stood frozen, while Hermione rushed to Harry's side, her panic receding as she remembered her new healing abilities.

As Emma watched on, frozen to the spot just inside her daughter's door, she looked upon a scene that was vaguely reminiscent of a recent episode of the X-Files. Her son-in-law was stretched out in the bed and his entire body was surrounded by a light blue aura. As she watched her daughter approach, she noticed that her hands also started to glow with the same light blue colour and as her hands came in contact with Harry's shimmering blue shell, it erupted into a brilliant blue that caused Emma to shade her eyes somewhat.

It was at this point that Dan emerged into the bedroom and he too, was frozen in place at the spectacle that presented itself to him. As both adults watched on in a type of morbid fascination, being doctors and all, they watched as the five ragged claw marks that ran from Harry's left shoulder to his lower rib cage on the right side slowly faded from view as the tissue miracuously healed itself in front of their eyes.

About five minutes had passed when suddenly, the light blue glow around Harry's body faded back into his body and Hermione's glowing hands returned to normal. Paying no heed to her parent's presence, Hermione crawled onto the bed beside her husband and wrapped her arms around his now sleeping form, placing gentle kisses across his one shoulder and neck while softly cooing to him.

Dan and Emma, seeing that there didn't seem to be anymore crisis to the situation, quietly wished the kids a goodnight and backed out of the room, two o'clock in the morning came early and the kids looked exhausted. Walking down the hallway to their bedroom, Emma started to relay the story that Hermione had told her about the attack and how they came to the aid of the child. The realization of their daughter's and son-in-law's future slowly sinking in, and just how special these two children were going to be to the rest of the world.

HP HG HP HG

A/N 2: Hoped you liked it and please leave a review.

Special thanks to lordblink for the Fenrir scene and please check out lordblink's new story, 'Birth of a Phoenix', its his first posting and a thoroughly enjoyable read.


	15. Chapter 15

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Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: Mental conversations will be _denoted by '*'_.

Special thanks to kissinghollie for betaing my story.

Another note of thanks to lordblink for helping me develop my own crazy ideas into something readable.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Fifteen

As the plane disappeared from sight taking Hermione and her parents off to France, Harry made his way towards the closest loo. He had to go to Gringotts and take care of business and knew that the goblins never truly closed their doors. Making his way into a stall, he closed the door, not locking it though, faded from view and in a controlled burst of flame, left Heathrow airport, the stall door bursting open from the sudden release of energy. Harry reappeared outside the Cosmo Girl 666 nightclub moments later and after using his sight abilities along with the ability to sense people, he quickly came to the conclusion that he was alone and quickly faded back into view and started towards Gringotts. He hoped that they would allow him entrance at this ungodly hour.

As he made his way towards the massive white marble building, Harry noticed two heavy set security Mountain trolls standing guard to either side of the entrance. Each one was holding a Halbird that was at least ten feet long, basing his guess off of the height of the two trolls. As Harry approached the front steps, he felt the eyes of the trolls on him, but they made no motion to impede his progress, so he made his way up the dozen or so steps to the main doors of the bank. Making his way inside, he felt the tiny compulsion ward make him look up at the warning plaque on display inside the entrance lobby. It read:

**'Enter, stranger, but take heed**

**Of what awaits the sin of greed,**

**For those who take, but do not earn,**

**Must pay most dearly in their turn.**

**So if you seek beneath our floors**

**A treasure that was never yours,**

**Thief, you have been warned, beware**

**Of finding more than treasure there' **

Chuckling silently to himself as he made his way through the second set of doors and into the main lobby of the bank, Harry wondered not for the last time how messed up the wizarding world really was. Here was a magical race that were forbade from ever using a wand by the ministry of magic, but based on what Godric and Rowena had taught them, the goblins never needed the use of a wand, their magic was in their craftsmanship of the weapons that they created and wielded to perfection. It had been stated that a group of ten goblins could take care of a group of a thousand wizards without breaking a sweat, but only about a hundred muggle defenders.

Wizards and witches trusted all of their gold and possessions to these creatures and yet, given the chance, they insulted them, belittled them and worst of all, the Ministry of Magic denied them any rights outside of their bank. Harry now realized that this was one of the things that he was going to be responsible for changing, but the how and when escaped him at the moment.

As he approached the only tellar that was opened, he noticed that he was the only human within the bank at this hour. He stopped and waited to be acknowledged by the tellar and He watched as the goblin, Griphook if memory served, scratched more information into a ledger. After about thirty seconds, the goblin returned its quill to its holder and looked towards Harry and said, "May I help you".

"Yes you can, most honoured Goblin", said Harry. The look of astonishment on the goblin's face was at first, one of shock but then it slowly changed to amazement. "I am here to request a runic blood inheritance test to help determine my lineage".

"Just a minute please", the goblin replied as it hopped down off of its chair and quickly made its way to an office at the other end of the counter.

Harry looked around the interior of the bank, at its magnificently polished marble walls, with granite inlay depicting different battles. There were portraits of prior leaders scattered along the walls as well, and at the far end of the lobby, opposite of where he stood now, was a large portrait of a goblin with a name placard below it. It read:

**Ragnok Silverslasher**

**Director of Gringotts**

**Europ**

**Since 1836**

Harry did a quick mental check and realized that the director had been in office here longer than the headmaster had been alive and did a long mental whistle as the thought filtered through his mind. "Godric never informed me that these beings lived that long", thought Harry, another reason to treat them with respect, they have been alive a long, long time and have probably witnessed many things. As he was pondering on this thought, the goblin had returned and cleared his throat, gaining Harry's attention.

"If you would follow me this way Mr. Potter, the director wishes to see you".

Harry was taken aback for a second at being addressed by his name as he hadn't provided it, so he replied, "Thank-you Griphook".

The goblin stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to face Harry, "How do you know my name", demanded the goblin.

"Well, I could ask the same of you master goblin, but I remember that you were the goblin that escorted me to my vault upon my first visit to this establishment and I am assuming that is how you know who I am".

"Right you are Mr. Potter", this way please", and turned once more and headed towards the huge double doors at the other end of the lobby. As they neared, the doors opened up revealing a long hallway with several doors opening off of either side, but they continued walking along the massive hallway. "There must be some type of space expansion going on here, the building isn't this big from the outside", thought Harry. As they came to the end of the hallway, it opened up into another waiting area with a reception desk off to the lefthand side of a set of lift doors. Griphook stepped forward and pressed his finger on a rune that glowed for a second and the lift doors opened up. Once inside, the lift started rising up and when it stopped, it opened onto a massive room.

"Welcome to director Ragnok's conference room, I'll leave you here to meet him", and then Griphook returned to the lift and disappeared.

Moments later, a goblin of above average height entered the chamber from a door off to the left and proceeded to come towards Harry. He walked with the poise and grace associated with nobility. He wore a business suit that instantly reminded Harry of Mr. Talbott, the gentleman he had saved from Walden Macnair's clutches what seemed like ages ago, but was only one week prior. There was also a scabbard that was attached to his waist and fell almost to the floor. Harry could only guess that this was Ragnok, but the goblin didn't look at least a hundred and sixty years old, he was lucky if he looked fifty.

The look of puzzlement and amazement must have shown on Harry's face because Ragnok then said, "I am actually three hundred and sixty years old Mr. Potter. As not only director of Gringotts here in Europe, I am the clan chief of all twelve goblin clans around the world and that position grants me some very special magics. As long as I remain clan chief and the bank prospers, I am able to retain my youthful appearance and abilities. May I congratulate you on your perfect use of Gobbledegook by the way".

"Excuse me?", exclaimed Harry questioningly, unknowingly reverting to English. "What do you mean by my perfect use of Gobbledegook?"

"You have been speaking in perfect Gobbledegook ever since you first spoke with Griphook downstairs. I must admit that I am impressed for a human to have such a grasp on our language, it usually causes a wizard to go hoarse within minutes of speaking more than a handful of words".

"I had no idea", said a shocked Harry, "It must have something to do with some, er, recent changes that I have undergone and the reason that I am here to visit the bank today".

"Ah yes, the runic blood inheritance test. Only a Founder's heir would be told of this information, and there hasn't been one of those in nearly four hundred years now. A pitty actually, that your world doesn't find it important to notify its more important families of their rights in the world today".

"Ahem, er, yes, well", began Harry, slightly unnerved that this being was so knowledgeable, "I am finding out that a lot of things have been hidden from me, and I need to discover exactly what those hidden things are."

"Fear not young master, I have known of your coming since before I took over as director. Its part of some family lore, that has to be passed down from director to director in cases like these, where their is no time frame given with certain requests, bequests and notifications laid out in some wills. Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw laid out some rather specific requests should an heir of theirs ever show up. Sadly, Salazar Slytherin and Helga Hufflepuff never had the same requests in place".

"Um, that's because Godric and Helga are the only ones that can direct them here. Salazar's portrait hasn't been found or awakened yet and since his son was totally against his father's and the other three Founder's beliefs, Salazar kept the information hidden, only to be given to a worthy heir upon his awakening. I have a good idea where his portrait is located, but do to certain circumstances, I haven't had the time to locate his portrait, or activate it. Besides, Godric said that everything would be revealed by the test".

"Are you trying to tell me that you are an heir to all four Founders then?" demanded a shocked Ragnok.

"Um, that's what Godric told me", replied Harry a little nervously as the tension in the air thickened somewhat. He could feel the apprehension flowing off of the goblin, but their was also a hint of, . . . hopefulness there as well

"Lets hope that you are who you claim to be because that test will claim your life if you are not who you claim to be. Now do you wish to proceed with the test", queried Ragnok.

Gulping nervously at the possible repercussions, Harry stated as confidently as he could, "Yes I do".

"Then follow me, the inheritance test that Godric set up for the four Founders is rather different than the ministry approved lineage tests that we also provide".

"Can you explain the differences to me while we head to wherever it is that you are taking me?", asked Harry.

As Ragnok walked towards another wall and a single rune, Ragnok said, "Certainly, the ministry approved lineage test only requires three drops of blood on the charmed parchment that the Ministry of Magic requires us to use. This way, the ministry is able to track who is who in their world, whether they're pure-blood, half-blood or muggle-born. The test only provides the information about the person being tested and their lineage back four generations. This is more for the pure-bloods of course, because the minimum requirements that need to be met to qualify as a pure-blood are as follows: every parent, grandparent, great grandparent and every great, great grandparent must be deemed magical, squib status does not qualify. A half-blood's status is determined by tracing back through the ancestory and one family line must remain pure.

Pausing to touch the rune and watch as a new door appeared and opened, revealing a new lift, Ragnok continued. "And a muggle-born is any magical that is born of non-magical parents. The test that you are about to undertake will dig deeper and trace any magical ancestory back as far as it can find any magical blood. It will be interesting to see your results, if your indeed an heir to all four founders, Mr. Potter".

Once the doors to the lift closed, Ragnok touched another rune at the bottom of a series of runes inside the lift and Harry felt that they were descending once they started moving.

"Um, why did you say that if I wasn't who I claim to be that my life was forfeit", asked Harry.

"Basically, the ritual was created as a deterrent by Godric and Rowena to stop just anyone from coming forward and claiming status as an heir. By placing your life on the line tends to do that, plus Godric and Rowena also informed us before their deaths, that only a true heir to a founder would find out about their heritage and come calling. We haven't had anyone grace Gringotts walls in nearly four hundred years now requesting an inheritance test, the normal procedure is to come in with a parent or guardian and request the ministry approved lineage test to determine one's status, but Godric's directions told us that only any future heirs would show up at the bank and recite one specific phrase, "I am here to request a runic blood inheritance test to help determine my lineage". He stated that any heir sent for this test would be told to say this phrase once asked by any tellar".

"Godric and Rowena had mentioned that that was what I was supposed to say, made me recite that particular phrase for two days straight and then tested me on it for the next week. Godric even asked me to recite it once more upon my departure the last time we spoke, making sure that I still had it right".

"And he is correct, we goblins are a nation who have a lust for seeing blood shed, especially of anyone deemed unworthy or untrustworthy. You did read our statement upon entrance to the bank, did you not", suggested Ragnok.

"Kind of hard not too, the cumpulsion field that I passed through as I entered the bank gave me no choice".

"You are indeed different Mr. Potter, there have only been a handful of wizards and witches that I have heard of who were ever able to sense that particular ward, and none of them have been in my lifetime, until now. This test will proove most interesting I am most certain", stated a shocked director.

The lift doors opened once more and the difference was noticeable. There was no more polished marble hallways with granite inlays, no more huge, wide open spaces, what was in front of Harry was a tunnel that looked like it had been hewn out of the solid rock that now surrounded them. The only light provided was from a torch that was mounted on the tunnel wall about ten feet away. As Ragnok proceeded down the hallway, another torch lit up and then another and another. If Harry had looked behind, he would have seen the torches going out as they proceeded further into the rock. The tunnel wasn't straight either, it weaved back and forth and occasionally led up, but for the most part, there was a steady decline until suddenly, they turned a corner and a vast cavern emerged in front of them.

The cavern that loomed in front of Harry had to be at least a hundred feet tall and dome shaped. It looked to be as far across as it was wide and a closer inspection told Harry that this room was circular. He noticed that there were intricate circles and runes drawn on the floor, and there were more runes on the dome-like walls. As they made their way to the center of the room, Harry couldn't help but look around and eventually up. At the peak of the room, there appeared to be a huge crystalline structure protruding from the very center of the roof, directly over the circles that he was fast approaching on the floor.

As they began to enter the series of circles on the floor, he noticed that each ring was about two feet across and contained different crests, and each circle was separate from the next circle inside it by a crack separating one ring from the next. By the time that Harry and Ragnok had made their way to the very center of the room, and the smallest of the circles, Harry had counted seven different circles, each circle lined with many different runes along their outer edges and containing many different crests. What awaited Harry at the center though, made him panic somewhat, because there were two stone pillars that rose up out of the floor on either side of the smallest circle that was about four feet across, and they had hand and foot manacles attached to them.

"Um, Ragnok, what are the manacles for?"

Chuckling, the goblin chief replied, "Its to hold you in place while the ritual is completed, as the magics involved will test your blood with every crest that you can see on the floor around you. Every wizarding family, whether living or dead, is represented by their family crest. And depending on how far back your lineage can be traced, can take a long time, and once the test starts, you can't leave the central circle".

"Oh", was the curt reply. "How long do the tests usually last then?" asked Harry.

"Well the last recorded test took nearly an hour, and that was only for an heir of Hufflepuff, and you intend on laying claim to all four founders, do you not?" queried Ragnok.

"Yes".

"Then, I have no idea how long the test will take, but once the test is done and it is determined that you are still alive, I will have one of our healers provide you with a rejuvenation potion to help you with the magical drain that the test is sure to illicit from you". I will be observing the ritual from behind the safety wards that will come into being once the ritual begins, so that there is a witness to the test. Do you have any further questions".

"Um, just one. . . . Um, who is the oldest family, just in case", said Harry in a slightly joking manner trying to alleviate some of his growing panic.

Ragnok, noticing the nervousness in the young man in front of him, replied in the same gesting tone, "The House of Merlin, but there has never been a descendant of Merlin's before, so I don't expect fireworks or anything like that, so with any luck, the test should only take somewhere around two to three hours".

Gulping deeply, knowing that he was now deemed the magical guardian of Merlin by Merlin himself, Harry said, "Alright then, I guess that I am as ready as I'll ever be, let's get to it".

"A true Gryffindor if I have ever seen one", said Ragnok, "Willing to jump right in and get it over with. Good luck and we'll continue our conversation once the ritual is complete and I will try and anser any further questions that may arise afterwards".

"OK, thanks".

Once Ragnok had placed Harry's hands and feet in the manacles, the goblin chief retreated to a separate room that looked upon the ritual roomm behind the protective wards and was directly across from the entrance they had come through. As Harry watched Ragnok's retreating form, he tried his mental link with Hermione.

_*Hermione love, can you here me.*_

_*Yes Harry, where are you?*_

_*I'm at Gringotts like I promised, I'm a little bit nervous.*_

_*Why do you say that love.*_

_*Because, I am manacled to two pillars inside this massive ritual chamber and I don't know what to expect.*_

_*Oh. Maybe I should have went with you after all, to at least provide you with some support.*_

All of a sudden, Harry felt a warmth come over him, like Hermione was there, engulfing him with one of her loving hugs.

_*Hermione love, what did you just do?*_

_*I tried to mentally send you a hug, why?*_

_*Because I swear that I just received one of your lovely hugs, that's why.*_

_*Great, another aspect of the bond that Rowena told me about, that we could share our emotions with each other. Now that I know, I will be sending all of my love to you while you go through this.*_

_*Thanks love, Ragnok's signalling me, I think that the ritual is about to start. Thanks by the way, I feel tons better knowing that you're only a thought away now. Wish me luck, I love you.*_

_*Good luck, I love you too.*_

Harry seen Ragnok signal to him, and as he watched, the runes on the walls and dome of the room started to glow a silvery colour. As his wrists were bound to the pillars, forcing his palms into contact with their surface, it came as no surprise to Harry when he felt a cutting sensation across each palm. Soon his blood was trickling down each pillar and then as if enough blood had been spilled, the two pillars started to glow a brilliant white. Weakened by the loss of blood, all Harry was able to do was tilt his head back slightly and close his eyes, but if he had been able to watch, he would have seen the runes that were etched into the outer edge of the circle he was standing on, start to glow and pulse in rhythm with his own heartbeat.

After a couple of minutes, as if the crevice between the inner circle and the next ring were being filled with the silvery glow of the runes, it spilled forth onto the first circle containing the crest of the house of Merlin. Soon after, the runes that were lining this circle's outer edge started glowing blue and white, alternating between the two colours with each pulse of magic. Like before, it seemed to take a couple of minutes to fill the crevice between this ring and the next before spilling forth once more. This circle contained the crests of the four Founders, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, the two male crests were polar opposites of each other with Ravenclaw's crest at Godric's left and Helga's at his right.

Soon the runes of this circle started to glow with gold, red, yellow, black, green, silver, blue and bronze, changing with each pulse of magic. The next crevice took a lot more time to 'fill up' before spilling forth onto the next concentric circle. Eventually all of its runes lit up, pulsating through all of the colours that one could imagine.

The test continued on this way, for the next four circles, each one taking an indeterminent amount of time until the outer edge of runes were glowing their miriad of colours. Finally, the outer crevice seemed to be filled the 'brim' with magic and then suddenly, each circle started rotating, the inner most ring going in a clockwise direction and each circle, as they spread outward, started rotating in the opposite direction to its neighbour. Pretty soon, the entire ritual room was lit up with an iridescent glow, the magic pulsating with Harry's individual heartbeat, always pulsing in an outward direction.

Then, just as quickly, the pulsating stopped and the rotating circles reversed direction. By this time, every colour of the rainbow could be seen shimmering within the ritual chamber, flowing around on the invisible currents of magic that were present in the room. Then the pulsating began once more, only this time, instead of pushing outwards, the focus was inwards, towards the central circle where Harry was still manacled to the two pillars.

As nearly three hours had passed by this point, the boy, no young man was barely conscious as fatigue was overwhelming his body when the first waves of magic pulsed back into his body. Instantly, he was brought back to full awareness as knowledge of his ancestory flooded his senses. Every witch or wizard, past or present, that he was related to, no matter how distant, filled his mind. Knowledge of his status to every family that he was related to was revealed to him as the magic pulsed inwards at an alarming rate until all of the pulsing runes had retreated, circle by circle until only the runes lining the outer edge of the central circle were the only ones that were left glowing.

Then, with one final burst of magic, the power that seemed to be fueling the runes poured into Harry's body, causing him to glow. As Harry started to turn a brilliant white, his head was forced back by the power of the magic and a beam of pure magic issued forth from his mouth and flowed into the huge crystalline structure at the top of the chamber causing it to glow a brilliant white as it absorbed the magic. When the last bit of magic finally escaped Harry's body, his head fell forward as he lapsed into unconsciousness.

As Ragnok looked on in pure amazement at the amount of power on display, he was shocked when the power contained in the crystal shot upward into the stone of the chamber and spread out in a wave of raw power. Moments later, he was made aware of the extent of power that this young man possessed as seven head of house rings materialized on the desk in front of him. Out in the ritual chamber, every family crest remained lit, some surrounded by a bronze glow, some with a silver glow, six lit by a golden glow and one that was still shimmering iridescently.

Ragnok started to laugh, a full blown, rib breaking laugh that had the Head Goblin almost doing a little jig where he stood. The prophecy that had been told a thousand years ago had finally come to pass.

**'The founders' heir would become known... **

**with Merlin's blessing... **

**and would have the power to... **

**return equality to the magical world... **

**the violent and the controlling darknesses... **

**would be destroyed once and for all'**

The crests of the houses of Bones, Black, Davis, Greengrass, Longbottom and Lovegood were all glowing silver, signifying their allegiance to one of the seven houses that Harry was now the heads of. The crests of Potter and Evans were lit up in gold, just like the crests of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff were, however, to Ragnok's amazement, the first ring containing the crest of Merlin was lit up with the iridescent glow of the rainbow. All of the other family crests had a bronze glow about them that told Ragnok that no matter what, Harry James Potter's magical blood ran through the veins of every magical family worldwide, laying his claim that he was indeed Merlin's chosen descendant.

The political power that this child now wielded was enormous, the Ruling Seven would be able to take control once more and return magical Britain to the ways of old. Ragnok knew that he was looking at the future of the wizarding world and made a decision right then and there to ally the goblin nation with the young lord. He knew that this young man would see that goblins were finally treated as equals alongside with every other magical species.

Seeing that the ritual chamber had returned to its former state, the silver glow gone and being replaced by the torchlight that surrounded the chamber, Ragnok touched a couple of runes on the desk in front of him only to have the doors on the far side of the chamber burst open and a goblin medical team enter the chamber. He watched as the medical team made their way over to the young lord and release him from the manacles and lay him out on the stretcher that they had brought with them.

Making his way into the chamber, Ragnok came alongside the stretcher and looked upon the unconscious form of the young man and said, "Rest Mr. Potter, we have much to discuss upon your awakening".

HP HG HP HG

A/N 2: I hope that everyone has enjoyed this story thus far. I am currently fixing a couple of errors and should be updating in the near future once more.

DnG - The Blind Guy


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: Mental conversations will be _denoted by '*'_.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Sixteen

The introduction to the story in Chapter 1 has been completely rewritten, along with a couple of corrections within the chapter. A serious change was made to Chapter 13, so I advise that everyone rereads it as of September 25. There were also a couple of minor errors corrected in chapters 14 & 15 that were affected with the change in Chapter 13, so I advise to reread them as well.

HP HG HP HG

"Avada Kadavra", said Lucius Malfoy.

Fenrir Greyback's lifeless body fell to the floor of Malfoy Manor as Lucius turned to face the other twenty werewolves that were to accompany him and the other five Death Eater recruits that were going to attack Diagon Alley in less than five minutes.

"Do any of you have a problem with what I just did to your leader", sneered Lucius. "It was plain to see that whoever he had a run in with last night, was capable of causing damage that wasn't healing and I was getting tired of his incessant whining. Now, I'll ask once more, do any of you have a problem with what I just did, because I don't want to go into this attack with the notion that one of you might attack me from behind. Its apparent that there's a new player on the field and I have no intentions of letting our master down. Now someone answer me before I choose the next victim".

Michael Fox was bitten the same night that Remus Lupin had been attacked by Fenrir. The main difference between the two newly created werewolves was that Michael fully embraced the darkness that was a part of him and had gladly followed his sire with pride. Now that Fenrir was out of the way, he knew that he was next in line to control the pack and everyone else knew it. So, it came as no shock to the other nineteen werewolves when he stepped forward and said, "Lucius, I speak on behalf of everyone here as their new leader. I have been second in command for years and I fully support you and your master. We will be behind you one hundred percent today".

"You do your pack proud Michael, its nice to know that you share our goals. I will let our master know of this and I will see that he rewards his faithful afterwards", said Lucius. "Now, everyone put on your masks, we have some havoc to create. Grab hold of the rope, we have ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one", and as Lucius said zero, the portkey activated and the twenty werewolves and five recruits disappeared from Malfoy Manor, Lucius directing the Death Squad. Moments later, they reappeared in the Cosmo Girl 666 club and headed for the door, adjusting their masks as they made their way out into the unsuspecting patrons.

HP HG HP HG

As promised, Ragnok had made sure that Harry was provided with a rejuvination potion and now the two of them sat at the head of the table in Ragnok's conference room. The set of windows that they were currently looking out of had a view of the entire magical London's shopping district. Off in the distance, Harry could see the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron and the main entrance to Diagon Alley.

As his eyes wandered over the 'lighter' shopping district, he could make out where each of the businesses were as their banners extended out over the alley, identifying their entrances. He could see the Cauldron Shop just inside the entrance as the first shop to greet visitors to the Alley and then on to Slug & Jiggers Apothecary. The Daily Prophet was next as its sign loomed high as the three storey building loomed over the smaller two storey buildings that lined the cobblestone street. As his eyes travelled closer to the bank, he came across the Junk Shop that Mrs. Weasley seemed to do all of her shopping in on their previous trips and then their was Eelops Owl Emporium. Next to that was Gambol & Japes joke shop where Fred and George had disappeared into the last time they were here.

On the other side of the alley were the many cafes and restaurants that Harry had visited during his stay during the summer leading up to his third year, after blowing up his Aunt Marge, the bitch really deserved that, he thought, after insulting my parents like that, and as he neared the bank again, he looked upon Fortescue's and the playground that was beside it. The other stores, Flourish & Blotts, Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, the Magical Menagerie, Madam Primpernelle's Beautifying Potions, Obscurus Books, Quality Quidditch Supplies, a Travel Agency and Ollivander's Wand Shop were scattered amidst the rest of the shops that were crammed into the quarter mile long street.

On the corner directly across from the bank was the Cosmo Girl 666 nightclub and the unofficial entrance to Knockturn Alley as it led off at a ninety degree angle from Diagon Alley and right in front of the bank. Harry turned his attention in the other direction though, the memories of last nights little skirmish still fresh in his memory and followed another street that branched off to the other side of Gringotts. Oddly enough, it was called Upturn Alley and as Ragnok had just informed him, it was where most of the single ministry workers resided as it was the residential portion here inside the magical boundaries that surrounded the region. It also housed the many mistresses of the unfaithful ministry pure bloods that owned their trophy wives as an indication of their power and status.

Ragnok had just sworn allegiance to the house of Merlin and Harry as he was now the chosen heir and head of that house. And this was why Harry was sitting down, his head now in his hands as he tried to digest all of the information that was racing around in his mind. He was frantically trying to organize it all into a new photo album when he happened upon a presence in his mind. He came across his potions teacher, Severus Snape, of all people. Since this was his mind scape, it was only a thought later and the greasy haired one was bound in a chair and forced to confront his most hated rival's son.

"Fancy meeting you here professor. Mind telling me why you're part of my mindscape?"

Severus Snape, glad to be discovered at last, decided that he wasn't going to be the smarmy ass that he had been towards his nemesis' son so far. "Mr. Potter, fancy meeting you here. I must apologize for my intrusion into your mind, it was silly of me to attempt this and ask for your forgiveness".

"Can I ask what right you had trying to use legilimency on me, especially now that I know that what you attempted to do is highly illegal?"

"Forgive me once again Mr. Potter, its a long story and I don't know where to start".

"Well, how about starting with the first potions class and why you seem to hate me so much. You seem to think that I am some arrogant, egotistical, fame seeking, rule breaking child which I am definitely not. Come to think of it, I'm going to let you view my childhood".

A moment later, Severus found himself inside the Gryffindor common room and Harry was handing him a photoalbum.

"Here professor, I would like you to go through all of my childhood memories and when you are done, I will return and finish this conversation. I know that you're trapped here and that I am the only one with the knowledge to escape. Feel free to wander, but know this, try not to wander outside the castle as you will be ejected back into the void. You are aware that I need to be in direct contact with your body so that you can return to your own mind, are you not".

"I am fully aware of that Mr. Potter. I am also aware that I have not been the kindest person to you and that I made a vow to your mother regarding you. I too, would like to discuss this at a later date, so I will be waiting patiently for your return".

"And one more thing professor. That photo album contains all of my memories from my childhood up until I boarded the Hogwarts Express, all you have to do is touch the picture and you will relive the memory, kind of like a pensive", and with that, Harry disappeared from his mindscape and returned his focus to Diagon Alley below him, knowing that the likenesses of Conan, Sonya, Fawkes and Sasha would keep the potions master in line.

"Ragnok", began Harry, "I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for aligning the Goblin nation with me".

"That is no problem, young Lord. Your ancestor, Merlin held every magical species in high regards and treated us all as equals. He was responsible for sharing magic to the four main races of magicals that are still alive today".

"I never knew that", said Harry. "What magical races are we talking about then?"

"The Centaurs, the Fey, the Goblins and Humans, of course. He tried teaching us all the same, but each race dealt with magic differently. For example, did you know that the Centaurs are only concerned with verifying prophecies and dealing with possibilities and not absolutes until the event has passed. They're pretty accurate with their predictions too, but because they wouldn't bow to the humans, they have withdrawn into the forest regions that they inhabit. Or did you know that the Fey, also known as the Faery Folk, live among us, but are never seen except by a few kindred spirits. Your friend, a Miss Luna Lovegood is one such person and all of those amazing creatures that she is always talking about are but one example of the Fey. House Elves are another of the Fey, but they have been bound to servitude and it will fall upon your shoulders one day to release them from that servitude.

Merlin taught us Goblins the intricacies of enchanting and since we work so well with metal, that is where our true abilities lie, that and war as Goblins are, or were, the most feared warrior like creatures thousands of years ago. Along with teaching us about enchanting, he taught us wandless magic so that it was easier to enchant the items while we were crafting them. Could you imagine trying to craft a red hot sword with one hand while trying to cast spells on it with a wand held in the other. Heh, heh, rather impossible if you ask me. And then there are the humans. Always thinking that they were better than all of the races and trying to subdue them. They are directly responsible for the Centaurs avoiding any contact with most magicals nowadays, the reason that the Fey have faded away from this realm with the exception of a few creatures that still live here and then there are my people.

We Goblins used to be a race that would come out at night and raid surrounding villages and towns, plundering them all for wares and such until your ancestor appeared one day. He taught us about enchanting the metal that we were so fond of mining and that in turn allowed us to craft many special items and we were able to trade something of value for once and started to become a more noble race. Sure, we Goblins still train to fight, even Wizarding history can attest to that in their biased views, because wizards by far, still treat us as inferiors and we are always ready should they attempt to overthrow us and try to enslave us like they did the house elves.

And that is why, Mr. Potter, that we, the entire Goblin nation, have aligned ourselves with you in hopes of equality being returned to us one day. And we also have several prophecies that point to you as the one who will do this".

"Oh shit, not more prophecies about me", said a half amused Harry.

"Unlike human predictions, or prophecies, our oracles have been trained by the Centaurs and have been responsible for giving no less than five thousand prophecies since Merlin last walked upon this ground and every one that has come to pass so far has been accurate," replied Ragnok.

"And just how many prophecies have come true then", said Harry half jokingly.

"Every one of them except one, and its identical to the one that Merlin gave before he passed on. It says that you will be the one to remove the stain of evil to this land and you will return equality to all of the races and return peace and harmony to this world".

"Great, just wonderful. I wonder if the other magical races have any kind of similar prophecies about me being their saviours?", said Harry, expelling a breath as the enormity of the task that lay ahead started to settle on his shoulders.

*Remember love, I am here to help you as well and that I love you*

*Thanks Mione, I needed that. Are you guys settled in yet?*

*Yes, how did the inheritance test go?*

*Just peachy love, apparently, because of me being the magical heir of Merlin, my blood is running through every witch and wizard that is alive today*

*I'm going to have to do some research about this, this sounds very important*

"Mr. Potter", said Ragnok, shaking Harry's shoulder lightly, "You looked lost in thought there for a minute".

"Sort of, I was communicating with my lovely wife. I didn't mean to zone out though", apologized Harry.

"No problem, its just that twenty-five Death Eaters just walked out of the Cosmo Girl 666 Club and are advancing down Diagon Alley as we speak and I thought that you would like to know".

"Thanks Ragnok, give me a second to fill my lovely wife in on the news".

*Mione, Diagon Alley is under attack and I have to do something about it, do you want to help?*

*Thought you'd never ask*

*Awesome, fill your parents in on what's happening and I will see you shortly*

*OK love*

"Ragnok, I have to leave temporarily, but I will return in a moment or two, would you mind waiting for my return, and please, don't be shocked at our appearances", said Harry.

"No problem, Mr. Potter, I look forward to you and your wife's return".

Moments later, Harry was gone, a ball of flame slowly dissapating after his departure, and Ragnok was still standing there speechless. No one had ever been able to do that since Merlin himself. "I'll have a troop of warriors ready to go into battle with you upon your return", thought the Goblin king as he walked over to a panel of runes on the wall.

HP HG HP HG

Just before Harry disappeared, he had concentrated on his lovely wife's face and after he had disappeared from Ragnok's office, he burst into being behind Hermione who was explaining to Dan and Emma what was going on, or at least she was trying to. Seeing Harry appear, Dan shifted his attention to his new son-in-law and asked what was going on.

"Twenty-five Death Eaters or so just appeared in Diagon Alley and I refuse to stand around and let these animals breed anymore terror into the magical citezens of the world. I aim to set a public example today by hampering their abilities and making the Minister of Magic acknowledge that Lord Voldemort has indeed returned. For some reason, the ministry doesn't want the knowledge of his return leaked out and our purpose today", wrapping his arms around Hermione, "is to go in there, with guns a blazing, so to speak".

"Just how do you expect to take on so many enemies?" asked Dan.

"By assuming our new identities, one that your daughter now has thanks to the soul bond that we share", and turning to Hermione he said, "Ready?"

A nod from Hermione was all it took and seconds later, the two Angels of Fury were standing there, larger than life in front of Dan and Emma. A high pitched whistle from Dan spoke volumes as Harry spoke once more, now in that low voice associated with his new form. "I'll return Hermione as soon as everything is taken care of and I may even hang out for a while, if you want".

"Keep her safe son, that's all we ask", said Emma, tears in her eyes as she looked upon the newly revealed heroes.

"I will", was the gruff reply as both Angels faded from view, followed by a trail of flames.

HP HG HP HG

Ragnok had managed to order a squad of ten goblins to be armed and ready to march when Lord Emrys returned, so when he felt, rather then heard their return, he was taken aback at the presence of the two creatures before him.

"Greetings Ragnok", said the larger of the two creatures, "I told you to be prepared for a surprise when I returned with my wife", the guttural voice spoke in Gobledegook.

Regaining his composure after a few seconds, Ragnok started to laugh at the situation and said when the laughter finally subsided. "Sorry Lord Emrys, your new appearance is rather terrifying. I now understand the rumours that have been about all week and its nice to put an image to the description that Lord Talbot provided me with earlier. I have a squad of ten goblins ready to march into battle with you if you need them", said Ragnok, "And Mrs. Potter, your form compliments your husband's well".

Hermione did a small curtsy acknowledging the kind words and turned to look out upon Diagon Alley. Harry had only been gone less than a minute, but the group of Death Eaters had spread up the alley, causing mayhem as they went. They seen a few bodies laying on the ground which caused the two creatures to experience the noble Griffin's protective traits come out in full force. Both of them felt the urge to rip and tear the enemies apart to protect the innocent and avenge the dead that lay on the cobblestone below. Turning towards Ragnok once more, Harry said, "Send your squad out the doors in two minutes to help with any that are trying to escape, plus enable the lockdown runes that Godric informed me about, the ones that are supposed to put impenetrable portkey and anti-apparition wards in place around the entire magical district.", then Harry and Hermione faded from view once more and the telltale trail of flames followed.

Ragnok walked over to the runic display once more, touched a button and gave the word to attack in two minutes and then pushed another button which opened up a secret panel on the wall a couple of feet away. Placing his hands on the two different set of runes that were now visible, he forced some of his own magic into them, activating the ancient wards that were designed to contain any kind of attack within the alley, or to keep an attack outside of it should the muggles' war spill over into the magical world once more.

HP HG HP HG

Harry and Hermione reappeared high above everyone on the rooftop of Gringotts looking down on the scene that was playing out below them. They could see the main throng of Death Eaters as they made their way up the alley towards the Leaky Cauldron and the exit out of Diagon Alley. They also observed four different gray cloaked figures occupying the minor entrances to the lesser streets that ran into Diagon. Then they seen Lucius Malfoy exiting the Cosmo Girl and placing his own silver Death Eater mask on his face.

*"What do you suggest Mione? I admit that I was lucky last night against Fenrir and I had the element of surprise on my side and I was still battered up a little bit."*

*"Well, we're supposed to be vigilantes are we not?"*

*"Yes."*

*"Well then, I suggest that you go invisible and go down there and use your petrification abilities and freeze everyone of them in place. You might be lucky enough to get a couple of the gray cloaked assholes as well. In the mean time, I am going to keep an eye on Mr. Malfoy and hopefully catch him in the act of casting an unforgivable so that the memory can be passed on to Amelia Bones as evidence. Then I'd like to see him plead that he was under the influence of the Imperious curse, now that we know that its impossible to cast any of the unforgivables while under its influence. Then I'll stun him and bind him up for the round up crew once the aurors make it onto the scene. For some reason, I think that the gray cloaked unspeakables will be behind their late arrival...Oh yeah, try and do a quick scan of their memories to try and retrieve some more information so that we can go on a proper hunt when mom, dad and I return from France."*

*"You're a genius Mione, what would I do without your brainy intellect."*

*"You'd still be stuck in first year, trying to get your homework done!" replied a giggling Hermione.*

*"I'll get you for that you cheeky little minx."*

*"I'm looking forward to it, maybe a little roll in the surf when this is over perhaps."*

*"Enough, I'll deal with you in a minute or two, but first I have some death munchers to petrify. Meet you back here in a jiffy then."*

*"You can count on it, now get going before someone else is killed."*

With that, Harry's creature form faded from view and the rush of warm signaled that he had disappeared. Hermione switched her own focus back to Lucius Malfoy, faded from view herself and then disappeared only to reappear about ten feet behind Lucius who was taking aim at a young mother who was dragging a couple of young children behind her. From her appearance, Hermione had to guess that she was a muggle and that at least one of her children must be magical.

As Harry reappeared in front of the line of advancing Death Eaters, he cast a powerful muggle repeling spell on himself and was happy to see several individuals turn around and flee in the opposite direction. This in turn caused all of the advancing Death Eaters to turn in his direction to try and discover what was making everyone scatter, which in turn served the purpose that Harry was waiting for. He allowed his greenish yellow eyes to become visible and allowed his petrification magic to come to the surface. Because it was the middle of the morning, the brightness of the sunny day literally hid his powerful stare from any onlookers until it was too late.

Within thirty seconds, the twenty black cloaked idiots were all frozen in place, in full Death Eater garb. There would be no escape for these individuals. Harry then cast a cursery glance towards two of the gray cloaked figures that were standing outside the Daily Prophet at either end of the building and the entrance to the smaller streets that were beyond the hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley. Unfortunately though, the other two gray cloaked figures had disappeared when he turn his gaze towards the other side of the alley.

As the two minute time limit expired, the doors of Gringotts opened up and ten heavily armed goblins marched out of the bank and down the steps to the street. It happened at the same time that Harry appeared in the center of Diagon Alley to face down the Death Eaters. The two gray cloaked figures that could see the troop of goblins advancing out of the bank slipped back into the smaller alleys that they were standing in front of and disappeared. At the same time that the doors to Gringotts were thrown wide open, Lucius began to utter the killing curse. "Avada Kad...", but was cut off as Hermione hit him with an over powered stunner followed by an Incarcerus that had him bound in ropes before he hit the ground.

Exactly sixty seconds later, Harry reappeared on the rooftop of Gringotts and was followed shortly by his beautiful wife, no harm to either one of them and a vast amount of knowledge to sift through as his legilimency probes had garnered some information, including the identities of the two gray cloaked figures...Alecto and Amycus Carrow and their parts in the attack on Diagon Alley.

HP HG HP HG

It took the ministry aurors another five minutes to show up on the scene where they immediately started processing the frozen Death Eaters. As soon as they were all in cuffs, Harry sent out a wave of magic from his position atop Gringotts and cancelled the magic that was holding them all motionless. Somehow, the two gray cloaked unspeakables went unnoticed by the aurors and as soon as the magical wave touched them, they disappeared back into the shadows.

Amelia Bones and Mad Eye Moody were responsible for the handling of Lucius Malfoy once they were on the scene. It was Alastair that pulled off the silver mask and revealed Cornelius Fudge's best pal to the crowd of onlookers that were beginning to mingle back out into the street. A flash bulb went off as Bozo had his camera flashing like crazy to capture as much of the scene as possible, but the unmasking of Lucius Malfoy would be front page news.

Harry reappeared silently beside Amelia and whispered into her ear, "Tonight. Ten o'clock PM. I will send a portkey that will bring you to me and a secure location where we can finally meet," then he disappeared once more. Hermione was still watching from the top of Gringotts and watched the nod of the DMLE Director as Harry had disappeared. When he appeared silently beside her moments later, he took her in his arms and they disappeared from Diagon Alley and returned to France. There was some fun in the sun to be had before the teadious task of filtering through all that information was to begin. Plus, a portkey had to be created that Fawkes would be delivering to Amelia and he had to return to Gryffindor's private suites where the portkey would deliver the head of the DMLE.

HP HG HP HG

A/N 2: Sorry for the long absence folks...I now understand when an author talks about the muse getting up and leaving and what the invasion of too many plot bunnies at the same time can do to one's thought process. My focus has returned for now and hopefully won't leave anytime soon. I have spent the past few months trying to improve my skills and hopefully it will show as the story proceeds.

So, please leave a review and let me know how you all felt about this chapter.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer

See the first chapter, nothings changed.

This story is being written for the Vigilante Harry Challenge issued by DZ2.

A/N: Mental conversations will be _denoted by '*'_.

Thanks to all those who pointed out mistakes in earlier chapters. They have been corrected.

Harry Potter and the Avenging Angel

by Dng

Chapter Seventeen

After appearing back in France, Harry and Hermione spent the afternoon frolicking in the surf and enjoying their time together. They joined Hermione's parents for an early dinner on the terrace of their rented villa that overlooked the water. The dinner was a pleasant affair and Harry and Hermione took pleasure in explaining the tactics that they used to foil the attack on Diagon Alley and how all of the Death Eaters were taken into custody. From there, the couple traveled back to Gryffindor's suites and enjoyed an enthusiastic bout of lovemaking before entering the shower and cleaning up. Hermione then returned to France and her parents, they were supposed to be on vacation after all.

After her departure, Harry made his way into the sitting room where Godric's portrait was looming over the fireplace. After getting comfortable, he sank into his mindscape once more and joined Severus in the Gryffindor common room where he found the potions master trembling in the armchair by the fire.

"Professor Snape, are you alright?" asked a concerned Harry after seeing the state that the potions master was in.

"Potter," greeted the potions master in his usual lip curled snarl.

Not willing to take any crap from professor Snape any further, Harry retorted in as powerful of a voice that he could, "What the fuck is your problem Snape. You have treated me almost as bad as my relatives from day one. Ever since I walked into your potions class on that first day, you have done nothing but belittle me, insult my father and vent some unknown anger upon me. Were you in love with my mother or something? You never seem to have anything nasty to say about her?"

The power of the voice and the off-handed comment about Lily knocked the wind out of Severus' sails and he hung his head down as the truth of what Harry had said in his tirade sunk in. After a moment or two of trying to pull himself together, he raised his head back up and looked into Harry's eyes.

"Mr. Potter...I must apologize for the way that I have treated you for the past four years...it was not proper of me to place my hatred upon you because of my jealousy regarding your father...Your mother and I were best friends at one point," replied the potions master amidst breaks where he had to compose himself. It was evident that he had been crying and that Harry had caught him off guard with his little outburst.

"So you want me to forgive you for hating me because you had a crush on my mother? You want me to forgive you for hating me because I look like my father? Can't you see that I am neither of them, I am my own person. Sure I may look like my father and my eyes look like my mother's, but they died when I was barely one year old. I was placed in hell on earth by one of your puppet masters and treated like a fucking house elf. Actually, I was treated worse than Dobby was when he was still in the employ of the Malfoys. What have you to say about yourself."

Severus sat there momentarily stunned at the ferocity of the young man standing in front of him. Had he been that terrible towards the child? If he had been, why couldn't he see it until now? Had Albus done something to him? Lord Voldemort was gone when he made that oath, so why was he treating Lily's son so badly. And never realized it. He remembered the oath that he swore over Lily's dead body to look after and protect her only child if everyone else that she had chosen to weren't able to. What happened to him? He was brought out of his musings when Harry started up his tirade again.

"...And you have hated my father ever since, because she chose him over you and you have held me as a target for your rage because I look like him, but my eyes remind you of her. Pathetic really, I hope that you at least had the decency to view the memories that I left for you?"

"I managed to, yes."

"I take it then, that you have had a chance to see my childhood and discovered for yourself that I am not the spoiled, arrogant, pompous, fame seeking celebrity that you have made me out to be. Did you enjoy the memory where my aunt bashed me over the head and cracked my skull, before my uncle grabbed me by the arm and twisted it so hard that the bones between my elbow and wrist splintered? And that was all before he tossed me into the cupboard under the stairs where I slept. But it didn't stop there, did it. Did you watch how he slammed the door repeatedly on my leg until he broke it causing the bone in my lower leg to protrude through my skin and then left me in the cupboard for days, unfed and wanting to die?

I have another memory now to add to that one. It's where the headmaster came in because his little trinkets in his office must have told him that my life was in danger. Anyways, he appeared in my relative's front hallway and proceeded to lecture my uncle on not causing too much bodily harm before congratulating him on a job well done. Then he proceeded to my small prison and healed the compound fracture in my leg and the skull fracture that my head had suffered. He left the arm alone though, letting my small amount of magic heal it. And then the bastard obliviated me of the knowledge!

There are countless others, but that one tends to stick out because of the callousness of the headmaster and his overall treatment of me. I am nothing but a puppet to him it seems and I have come to see him in a very new, and not so brilliant light over the past two weeks. You have been in here for almost a week now and you will need to return to your body soon, I'm sure, before any permanent damage comes to your body."

I have learned some rather interesting things about you while you have been in here. Like the fact that you are responsible for setting Lord Voldemort on the path that led to my parents death. But I am also aware that you took steps to try and stop him after finding out who he was really after, and that is where I am currently at trying to figure out where you fit into all of this. I realize that you are just another puppet in this game, controlled by two different masters. So my question to you is this: if you had a chance to be free of both of your master's control, would you be amenable? Would you be willing to put your differences aside and work with me to rid the magical world of not one, but two dark lords?"

"Mr. Potter, I do not deserve your forgiveness, I have not been very kind to you since your return to the magical world and your first appearance in my class. I made an oath to your mother after her death to watch over you and protect you. My attempts to fulfill that oath have been feeble at best, with your only true friend doing a better job than I in that instance."

"Which instance is that, professor?"

"Where Professor Quirrell tried to throw you off your broom during that Quidditch match during your first year. I was only able to stop Professor Quirrell's curse from throwing you off, but it took Miss Granger setting my robes on fire that caused the loss of eye contact and the eventual breaking of the curse that saved your life."

"Yeah, that may be true, but it was your efforts that kept me on my broom long enough to give Hermione that chance, so don't sell yourself short."

"Thank you. Now, can you tell me how you could possibly put me out of the control of the headmaster?"

"Simple. I have access to several different rooms within the castle that the headmaster doesn't and I am willing to move you into one of those areas provided you are willing to help me out."

"How do you know about these rooms and the headmaster doesn't?"

"I have my ways that aren't important at this time."

"Very well then. Can you tell me how I will escape the clutches of Lord Voldemort then?"

"Sure. I have access to the knowledge of how the dark mark was created and I also have access to the knowledge on how to remove it."

The potion master's eyebrows shot straight up at this news before he stated rather calmly, "Really?"

"Yes I can, but are you willing to help me out in return?"

"The dark mark is like a death sentence to me and I would be forever in your debt if you could remove it. I would be agreeable to help you out any way that I can, if you really wanted my help that is."

"I would be a fool to not accept your help Professor Snape."

"Please call me Severus then, from now on."

"Only if you call me Harry."

"Alright then Mr. ...Harry. What is it that I can do for you?"

"First off, you have first hand knowledge on the dark arts. I need to know how to fight against them and possibly hand to hand combat."

"Why hand to hand combat?"

"Because I had the element of surprise against Fenrir Grayback and I still got pretty banged up against him. I don't think that he will be walking anytime soon though."

"You mean to say that you fought one on one against that animal and you're still alive," a disbelieving tone in Severus' voice.

"Yup, and I managed to rip his front wide open before severing his Achilles tendon."

"Pray tell how you managed that."

"Only after you agree to help me and leave those two bastards in the dust."

"Very well. I agree to help you out and maybe, just maybe I might be able to tolerate you Mr. Potter," said the potions master with the first ever grin that Harry had ever seen splitting his face.

"Alright! I am going to retrieve your body and take you to one of the secret rooms within the castle where I can return your conscience to your body. Then we can further this discussion. I warn you though, that I have a meeting with another person at ten PM tonight that is very important, but I might leave you in the company of another famous person if you can put up with her."

"And who might this famous female be?"

"You will have to wait and see, but I assure you, that you will be over the moon when you meet her. Now, I have to go and I will return when its time to put your mind back in your own body."

Then Harry faded from the Gryffindor common room and left Severus Snape with a sense of warmth and happiness, two feelings that he had not felt in a very long, long time.

Once Harry opened his eyes to the room that housed the portrait of Godric, he asked his ancestor to check with Helga to make sure that the infirmary was empty. While Godric's mind was vacant, Harry contemplated the meeting that he just had with the potions master and thought that things could have went a lot worse than they did. He realized that both he and Severus had a long way to go before a friendship was born, but at least they respected each other now. Godric returned shortly and said that the coast was clear, that Albus wasn't in the building and that Poppy was having a snifter of brandy with the deputy headmistress and would be late in returning to the infirmary.

Harry felt a twinge of guilt towards Madam Pomfrey for what he was about to do, but at this point in the game, Severus' well-being and potential support was worth it. He appeared silently in the hospital by Severus' bedside and immediately took hold of his right arm and then disappeared with Severus in tow. He reappeared within Rowena Ravenclaw's private suites where he placed the potions master on the bed. Then he focused on his mindscape and joined Severus in the Gryffindor common room once more. He found Severus looking through another photo album upon his return and this one turned out to be the one that contained all of the obliviated memories that had been restored after his magical core was unbound.

"Hard to believe just how much of a bastard that he's been towards me, huh."

"Makes me wonder how many times I've been obliviated myself."

"Well, the person that you're going to meet later on might be able to help you retrieve any lost memories if you can be civil when I introduce you to her. Now, are you ready to leave this place."

"Yes, but if I ever end up in here again, could you put me in the Slytherin common room instead."

"If that's what you want. Now grab my arm and let's get out of here."

Harry returned Severus' mind to his body, but it was going to take several hours for his mind and body to sync up again. Then there was the magical healing that his body would undergo while his mind regained control of his magic once more. Harry knew from his vast amounts of knowledge what Severus was about to go through and that it would take a couple of hours before his new ally would be stirring. In the meantime, an epiphany had struck him earlier and he called out for Fawkes. He was pretty sure that his new familiar would know how to take him to the portrait of Salazar so that he could wake him, and afterwards, hopefully Fawkes would be able to show him where the long forgotten suites of Helga Hufflepuff were. Then he had a letter and a portkey to create before sending them off to the head of the DMLE.

He disappeared from the private bedchambers of Rowena in a burst of flame and returned in his and Hermione's new quarters while calling out to Fawkes. With any luck, Fawkes would be able to help out and with the portraits of the founders all-active finally, perhaps they would all be able to aid in their upcoming training. Then his mind wandered to Sirius and Remus and wondered for the first time if the remaining marauders would be able to bury the hatchet with their old rival and help with their training as well when he approached them. All he had to do now, was get in contact with them somehow, another task that he hoped that either Fawkes or Hedwig could perform for him.

HP HG HP HG

Amelia Bones wasn't taking any chances this time around. She had twenty-one Death Eaters contained in the ministry holding cells at the moment and there was no way that any of them were going to be leaving anytime soon, not if she had anything to do with it, especially Lucius Malfoy. He was caught in full death eater attire today and after checking his wand for the last five curses that it had cast, three had been the killing curse itself, and a fourth was in the process of being cast.

"Let's see him talk his way out of this one," she thought to herself. Everyone knows that casting an unforgivable while under the Imperious is impossible.

Of the other twenty remaining Diagon Alley attackers, only one was marked. His name was Michael Fox and he was the leader of this band of werewolves that had attacked. This left Amelia wondering where Fenrir Grayback was and if there was another wolf pack running around Britain now? Would they come to blows with Fenrir's pack? She was pretty sure that the rumours of Lord Voldemort's return were becoming more substantiated by the day if the fully exposed dark mark on Lucius Malfoy's left forearm was any indication. Cornelius Fudge was a damn idiot to deny what was happening right under his nose unless Lucius was paying him off handsomely, or God forbid, that Fudge was an actual Death Eater. The thought horrified her. If it were true, just how bad off was the ministry? How far had the Death Eaters infiltrated the ministry?

Fearing the worse now, Amelia went to her private filing cabinet where she kept her own files on the suspected Death Eaters who had pled to being under the influence of the Imperious curse after Lord Voldemort's downfall on Halloween of nineteen eighty-one. Her complexion paled as she went over the list that had been hidden away months after that night long ago. But as she perused the list in front of her, she realized that all of the marked supporters on her list now held some major positions within the ministry. There were department heads, deputy heads and other high-ranking managerial positions here and all of a sudden, a cold hard truth invaded her very being. The very ministry that she worked hard for, to uphold the laws for, was one step away from being under the control of the dark lord.

She was brought out of her musings however, by a burst of flames above the mahogany desk that adorned the private study at her home. Left in its wake was another scroll that was bound with the usual red ribbon used for keeping the scrolls tightly wrapped while being delivered, but this time there was an extra length of green ribbon dangling out of both ends of the scroll. Using extreme caution, Amelia pulled out her wand and magically tilted the scroll until the piece of green ribbon slid out and fell to the surface of her desk. Then she cast a series of detection spells on the scroll and they all came back clean. Opening the scroll she found the following message.

_Dear Madam Amelia Bones,_

_The green ribbon is the promised portkey to bring you to my private and secure location. It is designed to activate at exactly ten PM, so if you wish to meet with the Avenging Angel and get some answers, I suggest that you touch it at the proper time. I will be patiently waiting for your arrival. Please do not be alarmed of my appearance, I mean you and any other warriors of the light no harm._

_I will be showing you some memories in a pensive before I give you copies of those memories. We will speak more afterwards._

_Sincerely,_

_AA_

When she was done reading the letter, Amelia quickly glanced at the old clock that hung on the wall of her office. It was five minutes to ten and she had a choice to make, whether to take the portkey and go into an unknown situation, or let the time pass and continue investigating the new scenario that she had just uncovered. Then she thought about Macnair and the memories that had been left with that bastard. Her instincts were telling her that this Avenging Angel was someone that she could trust, maybe even confide in if her intuition was anything to go by. She glanced up at the clock once more and it read ten o'clock. Making a quick decision, she grabbed the folder with all of her own information from the first war and then she reached out her hand and touched the green ribbon that lay on her desk. Seconds later, the familiar hook behind her navel whisked her away into the unknown.

When she reappeared, she found herself in a sitting room with a window that overlooked a forest. As she surveyed the comfortable room, she noticed a fireplace with an empty portrait hung above it. As she continued to scan her surroundings, she came across the only way in or out of the room and spied the tall, dark cloaked figure that stood just beyond the doorway in what looked like an entrance hall. Thinking to herself, "In for a nut, in for a galleon," she peered at where the man's face was hidden under the cloak.

"I came as you requested. I assume that you want to share your identity with me and more than likely, what your appearance might mean as the face of magical Britain is once again on the verge of change."

"Very astute Madam Bones," replied the man with a deep guttural voice.

"Call me Amelia please. I have this notion that you are trustworthy enough and that you mean me no harm."

"Very well...Amelia. I trust that you viewed the contents of the memory that I left you about the attack on Mr. Talbot?"

"Yes I did."

"Good, then you understand that I am here to represent justice in its purest form. I have been chosen by magic to fulfill certain ...duties, shall we say."

"What do you mean by certain duties?"

"I have been tasked by the very essence of magic to do something that the rest of the magical world is either unwilling to do, or is incapable of. I know that neither scenario describes you however, hence my offer of alliance to you. I am able to...do things that the ministry would otherwise frown upon in its current state. We are on the verge of another war with Lord Voldemort at the reigns of one faction and I have been made aware of another who has thus far, been able to assuage any notice of his plans and intent towards the general populous."

"What do you mean that you can do things that the ministry would otherwise frown upon?"

"Let's say that I can operate outside the confines of the ministry. As I am not sworn to the oaths that you are, I am able to bypass the red tape so to speak. Like the Death Eaters, I can attack from the shadows, but only to stop an attack, or possibly to visit the wrath of the innocent upon those that walked free of their crimes. I noticed that you brought a file with you. Perhaps they contain some information that you wish for me to look into."

Amelia was taken aback momentarily by the presumptuousness of the man that was standing in front of her, but as she thought on it for a time, a stark realization came to her. This person was correct when he said that her hands were tied behind the red tape known as protocol and usually by the time that the hand of justice was allowed to fall, the guilty always seemed to walk free by some flimsy alibi, or some newly created legislation that protected them. Maybe this person would be able to dig deeper and find out truths that she would never have access to. Maybe this person would find out who killed her brother and sister-in-law and left Susan without any parents to raise her. Maybe this person was what the world needed.

Bringing her focus back to the man in front of her, she said, "Do you have anyone who can verify what you have told me about your charge, or are you just a vigilante hell-bent on taking the law into your own hands."

The man's deep voiced boomed with laughter for a few moments before speaking.

"That Madam, is exactly what I am, a vigilante for justice. As for proof, please direct your focus to the portrait above the fireplace, I am sure that you will be pleasantly surprised with who you see there."

Amelia did just that, but as soon as she viewed the occupants of the portrait, two things happened almost simultaneously. She managed to squeak out "Oh my", before fainting.

HP HG HP HG

Sven Yaxley chewed on his tongue absent-mindedly as he thought about the position that he currently found himself in. The raid on Diagon Alley had not gone the way it was supposed to. Lucius Malfoy was captured along with all of the werewolves that Lucius had gathered for this attack. Several thoughts were still swirling around in his mind as he came closer to his master's throne room, the former grand ball room of the late Tom Riddle Sr.'s house, like where was Fenrir Grayback who was supposed to have led the werewolves in the attack. He was pretty sure that the Carrows had been compromised too, but he wasn't one hundred percent sure and that meant failure in his master's eyes. He shuddered from the thought of the pain that he would suffer for that if his master were displeased. The one thing that he did know for sure was that he had walked away unharmed, as had his partner. He finally stood outside the ornately crafted doors to his master's throne room and knocked on the door.

"Enter", came the snake-like voice from the other side.

As he pushed open the door, he quickly glanced around to try and take in the enormity of his master's court. There on the opposite side of the room on a raised dais sat his lord, on a throne of bones and skulls, finally crafted from the skeletons of his dead enemies. He could see his master's pet snake, Nagini, curled up around his master's throne and her head rested comfortably on his feet. Her head had raised and looked in his direction when he had entered the chamber, with her tongue flicking out to test the air, probably to determine whether the intruder was friend or foe. The walls were absent of any finely drawn paintings and portraits, but there were several skeletons placed on display, each with a placard telling the identity of the fallen foe. Oddly enough, there were four empty pedestals that were unadorned. They looked exactly the way they had that fateful night so long ago, when his master had said that he would take care of the Potters personally. The placards displayed the names of Albus Dumbledore, James Potter, Lily Potter and finally, Harry James Potter.

He was brought out of his musings when his master spoke, "What news do you bring me Yaxley?"

He quickly approached his lord and dropped to one knee while dropping his head in submission, not wishing to come any further because of Nagini's gaze.

"Milord, the attack did not go the way that Lucius had envisioned it would."

"What happened then," demanded the dark lord.

"Well milord, I'm not exactly sure. Lucius led the werewolves into Diagon Alley where they all started firing curses and hexes into the crowd. Then Lucius hung back to observe the carnage that was being tossed about while killing the muggles like you had commanded. Alecto and Amycus were stationed at either end of the Daily Prophet, but I think that they were compromised, while I was standing watch by Fortescues. I have no explanation either milord, which could describe what happened in the midst of our attack. It was just like they all froze in place, unable to move. While this was happening, the goblins marched out of the main doors of Gringotts and lined themselves up, with armour glinting in the sun and axes at the ready, at the bottom of the steps to the bank. It was then that I observed Lucius about to cast another killing curse when he was flung violently forward, stunned into unconsciousness and bound up in ropes from head to toe before he finally landed on the ground. There was no sign of an attacker either, as I cast several detection spells in Lucius' general direction and they all came up empty.

It was then that I signaled to my partner to withdraw into the shadows. I was able to observe Alecto and Amycus as they seemed to come under attack and were frozen in place, just like the rest of them were. Then the aurors started showing up and started stunning and binding all of them milord, even Lucius. It was then that I felt a wave of pure magic burst through the area and the next thing that I knew, everyone that was stunned, bound and gagged appeared to sag in their bindings, as though the magic that had frozen them in place was reversed. Then I watched as Alecto and Amycus snapped out of it and faded back into the shadows where they continued watching from. I believe that myself and my partner were the only two from today's attack that went unobserved, nor were we compromised."

"Yaxley."

"Yes milord."

"Raise your head and look at me."

Knowing what was about to happen, Yaxley lowered his occlumency shields so that his master would have access to his mind so that he could see the events firsthand as they transpired. He was glad of the two headache and pain reliever potions that he had pilfered from the apothecary before attending his lord. Then his eyes came in contact with the red slits of Lord Voldemort and the assault was swift and painful, very painful. It would take him the better part of two days to reassemble his mind after his master's probing.

"Very well," began the dark lord. "It appears that you have told me everything that you saw. I have to think about this for a while. You did well in avoiding whatever happened. Please tell Alecto and Amycus that I wish to speak with them and tell your friend to remain hidden for now, I don't want to chance any further exposure as it would be detrimental to my plans."

Bowing deeply once again, Yaxley said, "Yes milord, I will pass on your orders milord."

"Very well, dismissed."

Sven then rose and turned to exit the chambers when Lord Voldemort's voice made his blood run chill.

"Oh, by the way. Since Lucius isn't here to tell me of this defeat, I must vent my frustrations on someone else...Crucio."

HP HG HP HG

Albus Dumbledore popped another lemon drop into his mouth as he sat back in the lounge chair and stared out over the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It was one of the little perks that he had purchased with the money that he had stolen away from the Potters and he chuckled softly to himself as he remembered the reason that he had bought this little getaway in the first place. This was where he had managed to track them down while they were on vacation and used some extremely powerful confounding and memory altering spells on them. How else could he have managed to get James and Lily to see things his way, that his vision of the future involved their son as a sacrificial lamb that would set his plans for the Greater Good in their final steps of completion. Once Harry was married to the little Weasley slut and Tom was defeated, could he step forward and kill the Potter spawn and take his rightful place atop the wizarding world as grand emperor. With the vast Potter wealth finally under his control, there would be none to stand in his way as all of the non-believers would no longer be alive and everyone else revered him as a god-like personality.

As he was lost in his illusions of greatness, he never knew that the Fidelius charm that he had cast on the Potters had weakened the charms that he had cast on them. Nor did he know that the will that he had had them create and sign were invalid. Nor did he know that the marriage contract that was drawn up and signed by both the Potter head of house and the Weasley head of house was no longer worth the parchment that it was written on. The compulsion and memory altering charms had been completely removed days before Lord Voldemort had attacked and killed the Potters. And they had managed to send another set of wills to Gringotts in private, denouncing any previous wills and to nullify the marriage contract with the Weasleys. But this would all come to a head on the first of August, the next gathering of the full Wizengamot where the bi-annual swearing in of the heads of houses would take place.

Another problem presented itself then, an extremely colourful parrot had just perched itself on the arm of the chair that he was sitting on and extended its leg exposing the roll of parchment that it was carrying. Retrieving the letter from the bird, he shooed the bird off and reclined once more and began reading the letter.

_Dear Albus Dumbledore,_

_To further our conversation on the night of the third task, both Remus and I must decline your request. The Black ancestral home is sealed up tight for now and I have no plans for returning anytime soon. After the harrowing year that my godson was once again subjected to while under your wonderful care and supervision, I am taking great strides in preparing to provide him a future free of your manipulative control. Word has made its way to me about what the Weasley child did. I have heard that you have tried to cover up the attack even though the child was guilty as sin. I have seen a pensive memory of the event and I am appalled at what you have done._

_I spent twelve years in a shithole because of your silence and manipulations. I also know what you did to James and Lily now, and I will die first before you do the same thing to young Harry. I am gathering information old man, and sooner or later, the truth is going to come out and you will be exposed for the lying, cunning and deceitful Slytherin bastard that you are. Yes, the carefully hidden heritage that you have locked away all of these years is about to come to light. It's too bad that your son didn't see eye to eye with your version of utopia. I guess that he wanted to be around long enough to enjoy it. It's a pity that he didn't kill you that night though; it would have been much better for all involved. Then you would have been able to step forward and assume your true title, Lord Slytherin._

_Sincerely,_

_Lord Sirius Orion Black_

_Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Black_

_PS. Good luck trying to find me before its too late. I'm in a place that's unplottable and is hidden under wards stronger than Hogwarts ever thought of being._

HP HG HP HG

A/N: Bet you didn't see that one coming. Dumbledore has been very busy indeed, hiding his true identity from the wizarding world all of these years. How did he do it?

Kindly leave a review. Thanks. Up next, the Ruling Seven are contacted and plans are set in motion.


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